PRESIDENT    ROOSEVELT 

From  a  photograph  by  Hrosvn  Brothers,  N.  Y. 

Copyright,  1908 


A 
THE  WHITE  HOUSE 

WITH 
THEODORE  ROOSEVELT 


A  STUDY  OF  THE  PRESIDENT 
AT    THE    NATION'S  BUSINESS 


BY 
WILLIAM  BAYARD  HALE 


ILLUSTRATED 


G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 

NEW  YORK   AND  LONDON 

ubc  "Knickerbocker  press 

1908 


COPYRIGHT,  1908 

BY 

THE  NEW  YORK  TIMES  CO. 

COPYRIGHT,  1908 

BY 
G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS 


Ube  Untcfeerbocher  press,  flew 


FOREWORD 

Nothing  more  interesting  could  be 
conceived,  either  for  contemporaneous 
reading  or  for  the  purposes  of  history, 
than  an  accurate  and  realistic  picture  of 
the  remarkable  man  who  now  occupies 
the  Presidential  chair  as  he  appears  at 
close  hand  actually  engaged  in  the  great 
duties  of  his  office. 

TJie  following  article  presents  such  a 
picture — the  first  ever  given  of  any  Presi 
dent  at  his  work,  and  by  all  odds  the  most 
intimate  study  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  ever 
made  public.  The  author  spent  some 
days  watching  the  progress  of  Executive 
business  at  the  White  House  and  has 
here  given  a  narrative  of  his  observations 
— so  far  as  consistent  with  propriety. 


290557 


fforeworfc 


IT  IS  TO  BE  CLEARLY  UNDERSTOOD 
THAT  THE  PRESIDENT  IS  IN  NO  SENSE 
AND  TO  NO  DEGREE  WHATSOEVER  RE 
SPONSIBLE  FOR  ANY  STATEMENT,  SENTI 
MENT,  OR  OPINION  THAT  FOLLOWS. 

Nor  does  the  author,  when  quoting  the 
President,  pretend  to  give  his  exact 
language;  he  records  merely  the  impres 
sion  made. 


CONTENTS 

PAGB 

INTRODUCTORY  .....          i 

THE  PRESIDENT  IN  THE  WHITE  HOUSE.         9 

Stage,  Scenery,  and  Action  of  the  Great 
Play — No  Scene  Like  This  in  All  the 
World — A  Nation's  Life  in  Panorama 
Passing  before  a  President — What 
Manner  of  Man  He  Really  Is. 

A  VIEW  OF  THE  PRESIDENT  AT  WORK  .       26 

How  Cabinet  Secretaries,  Senators,  Repre 
sentatives,  Officials  in  General,  and 
Private  Citizens  See  Mr.  Roosevelt 
and  Lay  Their  Troubles  before  Him — 
National  Affairs  can  Be  both  Big  and 
Little. 

THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  WHITE  HOUSE         .       51 

Democracy  and  an  Imperious  Will — An 
Ever-Ready  Courtesy  and  Ever-Bub 
bling  Good-Humour  from  a  Man  with 
a  Neck  of  Steel — Power,  without  Its 
Circumstance,  and  Roars  of  Laughter. 


Contents 


A  TYPICAL  DAY  WITH  THE  PRESIDENT          59 

Taft  Gets  the  First  Conference,  while  Bev- 
eridge  Waits — A  Congressman  Rep 
rimanded — The  Ends  of  the  World, 
the  Extremes  of  Social  Station,  Con 
trasting  Ages,  and  Causes  Innumerable 
and  Diverse  Dealt  with  by  an  Agile 
Mind. 

A  CABINET  DAY  AT  THE  WHITE  HOUSE       90 

What  One  Man  can  Do  in  an  Hour — 
Listening  to  Appeals  for  Pardon  and 
for  Appointments,  Army  and  Navy 
Affairs,  Delegations,  and  Resigna 
tions,  Righting  Private  Wrongs,  and 
Deciding  Public  Questions  in  a  Frac 
tion  of  a  Morning. 

GIVING  AUDIENCES  TO  Two  HUNDRED  .      101 

A  Throng  of  Congressmen  and  Officials, 
with  a  Bewildering  Variety  of  Concerns 
— Mr.  Roosevelt  Wants  to  Hunt  Lions 
in  Africa,  but  Meanwhile  Urges  Taft 
upon  All  Influential  Callers,  and  Re 
fuses  to  Talk  with  Third-Term  Bourne. 

AN  ESTIMATE  OF  MR.  ROOSEVELT          .      112 

The  Marvel  of  His  Physical  Energy, 
Nimbleness  of  Attention,  Power  of 


Contents 


Concentration,  and  Volume  of  Infor 
mation — His  Clairvoyant  Under 
standing  of  the  Average  Man — His 
Lack  of  Philosophical  or  Poetic 
Sympathy. 

THE  PRESIDENT  ON  MR.' ROOSEVELT      .      142 

What  the  Executive  might  Say  of  Himself 
— "I  Am  No  Genius" — Washington, 
Lincoln,  the  Average  Man,  and  Lead 
ership — How  Seeming  Impetuosity 
may  Really  Be  Reasoned,  and  Seem 
ing  Rashness  Really  Patience — The 
Fun  of  Being  President. 


ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAOB 

PRESIDENT  ROOSEVELT        .       Frontispiece 
From  a  photograph  by  Brown  Brothers,  N .  Y. 
Copyright,  1908 

THE  CITY  OF  WASHINGTON,  WITH  THB 
WHITE  HOUSE  IN  THE  FOREGROUND  .       10 
From  a  photograph  by  Brown  Brothers,  N .  Y. 

THE    WHITE    HOUSE,     SHOWING    THE 
NORTH   FACADE       ....       20 
From  a  photograph  by  Brown  Brothers,  N.  Y. 

WILLIAM  LOEB,  JR.,  THE  PRESIDENT'S 
SECRETARY     .....       30 
From  a  photograph  by  Harris  &  Ewing 

THE     PRESIDENT'S     OFFICE     IN     THE 
WHITE   HOUSE        ....       40 

From  a  photograph  by  Detroit  Photographic 
Company.     Copyright,  1908 

THE  PRESIDENT  AT  HIS  DESK       .          .       52 
From  a  photograph  by  H.  C.  White  Co.,  N.  Y. 
Copyright,  1908 

ix 


Illustrations 


PACK 

THE    CABINET    ROOM    IN    THE    WHITE 
HOUSE  .....       90 

From  a  photograph  by  Detroit  Photographic 
Company.     Copyright, 


MAJOR  LOEFFLER,  THE  DOORKEEPER       .        Il8 
From  a  photograph  by  Harris  &  Ewing 

CALLERS  AT  THE  WHITE  HOUSE    .          .126 
From  a  photograph  by  Brown  Brothers,  N.  Y. 


A  WEEK  IN  THE  WHITE 
HOUSE 


A  Week  in  the  White  House 
with  Theodore  Roosevelt 


INTRODUCTORY 


IT  was  curious  enough  that,  on 
the  train  to  Washington,  a  well- 
thumbed  copy  of  the  Journal  Intime 
—which  one  may  read  with  safety  in 
the  springtime — should  have  opened 
of  itself  so  often  to  passages  like  these: 

The  East  prefers  immobility  as  the  form 
of  the  Infinite;  the  West,  movement.  It  is 
because  the  West  is  infected  by  the  passion  of 
details.  .  .  .  Like  a  child  upon  whom  a 
hundred  thousand  francs  have  been  bestowed, 
she  thinks  she  is  multiplying  her  fortune  by 
counting  it  out  in  pieces  of  twenty  sous,  or 
five  centimes.  Her  passion  for  progress  is  in 


fritrofcuctors 


great  part  the  product  of  an  infatuation, 
which  consists  in  forgetting  the  goal  to  be 
aimed  at,  and  absorbing  herself  in  the  pride 
and  the  delight  of  each  tiny  step,  one 
after  the  other.  Child  that  she  is,  she  is 
even  capable  of  confounding  change  with  im 
provement.  .  .  . 

The  divine  state  par  excellence  is  that  of 
silence  and  repose,  because  all  speech  and  all 
action  is  in  itself  limited  and  fugitive.  Na 
poleon  with  his  arms  crossed  over  his  breast 
is  more  expressive  than  the  furious  Hercules 
beating  the  air  with  his  athlete's  fists.  People 
of  passionate  temperament  never  understand 
this.  They  are  sensitive  only  to  the  energy 
of  succession ;  they  know  nothing  of  the  energy 
of  condensation.  .  .  . 

Having  early  a  glimpse  of  the  absolute,  I 
have  never  had  the  indiscreet  effrontery  of 
individualism.  What  right  have  I  to  make  a 
merit  of  a  defect?  I  have  never  been  able  to 
see  any  necessity  for  imposing  myself  upon 
others,  nor  for  succeeding.  I  have  seen  no 
thing  clearly  except  my  own  deficiencies  and 
the  superiority  of  others.  That  is  not  the  way 
to  make  a  career. 

If  the  gentle  philosopher  of  Geneva 


flntrofcuctors 


could  have  lived  to  see  this  day  and 
had  looked  about  for  the  chief  living 
incarnation  and  exemplification  of  the 
view  of  life  which  he  reprobated,  he 
would  have  recognised  it  in  the  person 
of  the  twenty-fifth  President  of  the 
Republic  whose  proclivities  he  did  live 
to  deplore.  A  fresh  reading  of  the 
journal  of  this  man  of  contemplation 
was,  therefore,  scarcely  the  appropri 
ate  preparation  for  a  study  of  the 
man  of  action.  Nevertheless,  however 
much  I  may  have  been  impressed  with 
Amiel's  praise  of  the  energy  of  con 
centration,  after  an  observation  of  the 
President  during  a  number  of  days 
I  am  prepared  to  admit  that  there  is  a 
place  in  the  world  also  for  representa 
tives  of  the  energy  of  succession. 

It  is,  at  all  events,  certain  that  the 
Oriental  type  of  mind  is  not  adapted  to 


fntrofcuctors 


the  leadership  of  the  Western  world. 
The  holy  man  who  spends  a  lifetime 
contemplating  his  navel,  may  achieve 
rich  stores  of  wisdom  and  may  free  his 
soul  from  earthly  dross — but  he  would 
not  make  a  good  President  of  the 
United  States.  If  we  of  the  West 
will  persist  in  our  infatuation  for  move 
ment,  then  the  force  of  circumstances 
will  push  to  our  head  the  man  who 
most  completely  represents  activity. 

This  is  the  principle  which  has  made 
Theodore  Roosevelt  President;  which 
would  inevitably  have  made  him  Presi 
dent  in  any  conceivable  combination  of 
events;  this  is  the  principle  which  has 
made  him  far  more  than  President. 
Think  what  you  may  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
policies — and  let  it  be  said  now  that  this 
article  has  nothing  to  do  with  these— 
believe  him  all  wrong"  if  you  will,  hate 


Untrofcuctors 


him  personally,  if  you  will,  it  is  impos 
sible  to  deny  that  he  is  the  idol  of  more 
Americans  than  any  other  man  has 
ever  been,  and  that  he  is  believed 
abroad  to  be  the  most  typical  man  of 
his  nation.  He  is  the  type  of  active 
energy. 

Any  portrait  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  must 
make  that  fact  prominent.  But  it  is 
that  fact  which  makes  a  por-  NO  Portrait 
trait  such  as  this  would  be  „  Gi,v!f tbe 

Real  Presi- 

— a  "pen  portrait"  in  the  old  dent, 
phrase,  namely — the  only  one  that 
can  hope  to  portray  him.  The 
President  has  been  studied  on  the 
model  throne  and  at  his  desk  by  Char- 
tran,  Sargent,  Rouland,  and  others.  He 
will  never  live  in  verity  on  any  canvas. 
Of  all  men  the  President  lends  himself 
least  to  portraiture  by  the  brush. 
Painting  is  a  still  art.  It  cannot  repre- 


fntrofcucton? 


sent  action.  The  President  in  repose 
is  a  dynamo  at  rest — and  looks  the  part. 
But  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  paint  a 
dynamo.  M.  Chartran's  hand  symbo 
lises  strength;  Rouland's  face  and  pose 
express  strength.  But  the  only  picture 
that  can  give  Mr.  Roosevelt  will  be 
drawn  by  the  art  of  words.  They 
photograph  the  lightning  now,  but  it  is 
a  poor  sense  of  its  brilliant  energy  one 
gets  from  the  fixed  outline  of  the  pict 
ure.  I  believe  the  cinematograph 
hasn't  yet  been  prefected  to  the 
point  where  it  can  catch  the  flame  of 
heaven,  and  I  am  sure  it  couldn't 
keep  up  with  Mr.  Roosevelt's  activity. 
It  is  the  hope  of  this  article,  however, 
to  give  a  sort  of  verbal  cinemato 
graphic  study  of  the  President.  It 
wants  to  picture  him  forth  in  the  suc 
cession  of  attitudes  and  moods  through 


fntrofcuctors 


which  he  passes  as  he  carries  on  the 
work  of  the  Nation,  and  to  record  the 
impressions  which  he  makes  upon  one 
who  observes  him  in  the  unconscious 
self-revelation  of  his  busiest  hours.  It 
is  to  be  understood  that  it  is  a  view  of 
the  President  at  work,  a  picture  of  the 
man  in  his  Executive  Office. 


THE  PRESIDENT  IN  THE  WHITE 
HOUSE 

Stage,  Scenery,  and  Action  of  the  Great  Play — No 
Scene  Like  This  in  All  the  World — A  Nation's 
Life  in  Panorama  Passing  before  a  President — 
What  Manner  of  Man  He  Really  Is. 

IMAGINE,  then,  a  room  thirty  feet 
square,  with  three  windows  looking 
south  over  the  White  House  grounds  to 
the  Potomac  and  the  Virginia  hills,  the 
top  half  of  the  Monument  visible  over 
the  back-screen  of  a  tennis  court.  A 
big  desk  with  a  few  papers  (always  in 
order),  a  few  books,  an  art  nouveau 
lamp,  and  two  or  three  vases  of  flow 
ers,  facing  a  fireplace  above  which 
hangs  an  oil  portrait  of  Lincoln — a  poor 
one;  I  hope  it  bears  the  "pinxit"  of  no 

9 


io  tTbe  president 

friend  of  mine.  It  is  the  only  artistic 
ornament  of  the  room;  though  there  is 
a  tiny  clock  on  the  mantel,  and  a  little 
above  it  a  photograph  of  a  big  bear  and 
a  framed  autograph  of  the  sonnet  by 
J.  J.  Ingalls: 

OPPORTUNITY 

Master  of  human  destinies  am  I. 

Fame,  love,  and  fortune  on  my  footsteps  wait, 

Cities  and  fields  I  walk;  I  penetrate 

Deserts  and  seas  remote,  and  passing  by 

Hovel,  the  mart,  and  palace,  soon  or  late 

I  knock  unbidden  once  at  every  gate ! 

If  sleeping  wake — if  feasting,  rise  before 

I  turn  away.    It  is  the  hour  of  fate, 

And  they  who  follow  me  reach  every  state 

Mortals  desire,  and  conquer  every  foe 

Save  death ;  but  those  who  doubt  or  hesitate. 

Condemned  to  failure,  penury,  and  woe, 

Seek  me  in  vain  and  uselessly  implore, 

I  answer  not,  and  I  return  no  more. 

The  room  contains  no  patriotic  sym 
bol  nor  emblem  of  office,  unless  the 


In  tbe  Wbtte  Douse 


big  bunch  of  American  Beauties  be 
considered  one,  and  the  huge  globe  in  a 
corner  in  some  sort  the  other.  Be 
sides,  a  leather-covered  divan  and  a 
chair  or  two,  mahogany,  like  the  desk. 
The  woodwork  ivory,  the  walls  covered 
with  dark  olive  burlap,  two  windows 
behind  the  desk,  five  pairs  of  olive 
curtains.  So  severe  is  the  room  that 
very  few  business  men  indeed  have  not 
its  superior  in  decoration,  if  not  in 
simple  comfort. 

There  is  no  telephone  in  the  Presi 
dent's  Office. 

Adjoining  this  room  and  connecting 
with  it  by  sliding  doors,  so  that  the 
two  apartments  are  practically  one,  is 
a  counterpart,  though  ten  feet  longer— 
the  Cabinet  room.  This  is  pretty  well 
filled  up  by  the  great  table  around 
which  the  President's  advisers  assemble 


present 


on  Tuesdays  and  Fridays  at  eleven. 
Each  of  the  arm-chairs  is  assigned  and 
bears  upon  its  back  a  silver  plate  indi 
cating  its  assignment.  I  don't  know 
that  anybody  ever  looks  up,  but  if  he 
does  he  sees  in  the  middle  of  the  ceiling 
of  either  room  a  cluster  of  electric  lights 
set  at  the  heart  of  a  system  of  gilded 
rays  where  a  picture  of  an  All-Seeing 
Eye  might  be  expected.  The  Presi 
dent's  fauteuil  has  a  back  a  trifle  taller 
than  have  the  seats  of  the  Executive 
family.  I  grieve  to  state  that  the 
Cabinet  room  harbours  a  cuspidor.  A 
big  divan;  half  a  dozen  chairs  against 
the  wall,  which  is  adorned  only  with 
maps;  a  pair  of  dwarf  Japanese  pines 
on  the  mantel,  and  —  it  is  no  time  to 
suppress  the  truth  —  frequently  the  silk 
hat  of  a  visitor;  a  revolving  book-case 
containing  the  Federal  Statutes  at 


Un  tbe  Tldbite  Ibouse  13 

Large  and  such  like  tomes ;  a  table  and 
a  silver  water-pitcher  in  a  corner — and 
you  have  a  picture  of  the  olive-and- 
ivory  office  whence  go  forth  edicts 
which  have  determined  so  much  con 
temporaneous  history  and  in  so  large 
a  measure  are  shaping  the  burdened 
future.  For  the  matter  of  that  I  re 
member  that  10,  Downing  Street  is 
plain,  and  I  have  seen  a  King  dispense 
judgment  under  a  tree  and  a  Pope  give 
blessing  in  a  garden. 

But  no  man  has  ever  seen,  anywhere 
on  earth,  a  scene  of  such  democratic 
setting  and  manner  of  en 
actment,  significant  of   Such    the  Scenery, 
f  «  .  and  the  Man. 

far-reaching  results,  as  that 
which   is   to   be    seen  in  these  olive- 
and-ivory  rooms  any  day  when  the  flag 
is  flying  over  the  White  House  roof. 
The  President  repairs  to  his  office 


14  Ube  president 

each  morning  at  9:30,  except  on  Sun 
day,  and  to  it  come  to  seek  him  the 
high  and  the  low — if  there  be  any  low 
in  a  Republic  like  this  of  ours.  Before 
you  admit  them  in  imagination  get  the 
permanent  features  of  the  scene  in 
mind: 

Imagine  at  the  desk  sometimes,  on 
the  divan  sometimes,  sometimes  in  a 
chair  in  the  farthest  corner  of  the 
Cabinet  room,  more  often  on  his  feet 
—it  may  be  anywhere  within  the  four 
walls — the  muscular,  massive  figure  of 
Mr.  Roosevelt.  You  know  his  features 
— the  close-clipped  brachycephalous 
head,  close-clipped  mustache,  pince- 
nez,  square  and  terribly  rigid  jaw. 
Hair  and  moustache  indeterminate  in 
colour;  eyes  a  clear  blue;  cheeks  and 
neck  ruddy.  He  is  in  a  frock-coat,  a 
low  collar  with  a  four-in-hand,  a  light 


In  tbe  Wbite  t>ouse  15 

waistcoat,  and  grey  striped  trousers— 
not  that  you  would  ever  notice  all  that 
unless  you  pulled  yourself  away  from 
his  face  and  looked  with  deliberate 
purpose.  Remember  that  he  is  almost 
constantly  in  action,  speaking  earnestly 
and  with  great  animation;  that  he 
gestures  freely,  and  that  his  whole  face 
is  always  in  play.  For  he  talks  with 
his  whole  being — mouth,  eyes,  fore 
head,  cheeks,  and  neck  all  taking  their 
mobile  parts.  The  President  is  in  the 
pink  of  condition  to-day ;  his  face  clear, 
his  weight  I  should  say  wellnigh  a 
stone  less  than  was  his  habit  back  of  a 
year  ago.  Look  at  him  as  he  stands 
and  you  will  see  that  he  is  rigid  as  a 
soldier  on  parade.  His  chin  is  in,  his 
chest  out.  The  line  from  the  back  of 
his  head  falls  straight  as  a  plumb-line  to 
his  heels.  Never  for  a  moment,  while 


1 6  ZTbe  presffcent 

he  is  on  his  feet,  does  that  line  so  much 
as  waver,  that  neck  unbend.  It  is  a 
pillar  of  steel.  Remember  that  steel 
pillar.  Remember  it  when  he  laughs, 
as  he  will  do  a  hundred  times  a  day — 
heartily,  freely,  like  an  irresponsible 
school-boy  on  a  lark,  his  face  flushing 
ruddier,  his  eyes  nearly  closed,  his 
utterance  choked  with  mirth,  and 
speech  abandoned  or  become  a  weird 
falsetto.  For  the  President  is  a  joker, 
and  (what  many  jokers  are  not)  a 
humourist.  He  is  always  looking  for 
fun — and  always  finding  it.  He  likes  it 
rather  more  than  he  does  a  fight — but 
that 's  fun  too.  You  have  to  remember, 
then,  two  things  to  see  the  picture: 
a  room  filled  with  constant  good- 
humour,  breaking  literally  every  five 
minutes  into  a  roar  of  laughter — and 
a  neck  of  steel. 


fn  tbe  Wbite  t>ouse          17 

Not  that  the  President  always  stands 
at  attention.  He  doubles  up  when 
he  laughs,  sometimes.  Sometimes — 
though  only  when  a  visitor  whom  he 
knows  well  is  alone  with  him — he  puts 
his  foot  on  a  chair.  When  he  sits, 
however,  he  is  very  much  at  ease — half 
the  time  with  one  leg  curled  up  on  the 
divan  or  maybe  on  the  Cabinet  table 
top.  And,  curiously,  when  the  Presi 
dent  sits  on  one  foot  his  visitor  is  likely 
to  do  the  same,  even  if,  like  Mr.  Justice 
Harlan  or  Mr.  J.  J.  Hill,  he  has  to  take 
hold  of  the  foot  and  pull  it  up. 

All  this  may  be  very  idle,  yet  it  is  all 
part  of  the  scene. 

Imagine  ushered  into  this  olive-and- 
ivory  apartment  inhabited  by  its  great 
personality,  a  procession  of  Cabinet 
Ministers,  Supreme  Court  Justices, 
Senators,  Governors,  Representatives, 


1 8  Ube  prestfcent 

Mayors,  bureau  chiefs  and  depart 
mental  officers,  political  leaders,  officers 
The  of  the  Army  and  Navy,  seek- 

passing  Pro-  ers   for   office    (hungry  and 

cession. 

importunate),  postmasters, 
collectors,  Federal  marshals  and  attor 
neys,  counsellors,  commissioners,  dele 
gations  representing  all  conceivable  in 
terests,  almost  all  with  favours  to  beg 
for,  men  with  reports  to  make,  men 
with  grievances  to  complain  of — these 
interspersed  with  distinguished  citizens, 
often  accompanied  by  their  wives,  liter 
ati  from  every  clime,  travellers  on  globe- 
girdling  journeys  who  want  to  shake 
hands,  hunters,  cattlemen,  railroad 
presidents,  reformers  (fire  in  each  eye 
and  papers  in  each  hand),  miners, 
mechanics,  Indians,  Japanese,  editors, 
clergymen — all  who  can  get  a  Congress 
man  to  introduce  them — imagine  such 


In  tbe  Mbite  Douse  19 

a  procession  passing  from  10  till  1:30 
each  day  and  day  after  day,  and  this 
man  dealing  with  it — as  I  shall  tell. 

They  are  ushered  into  the  Cabinet 
room,  after  a  longer  or  a  shorter  wait 
in  the  ante-rooms,  by  the  doorkeeper, 
Major  Loeffler,  who,  in  any  other  land, 
would  be  a  personage  of  recognised 
influence,  though,  indeed,  his  import 
ance  is  recognised  here.  For,  however 
democratic,  the  President's  audience- 
room  is  a  court,  and  admission  to  the 
Presidential  presence  at  the  right  mo 
ment  and  under  favourable  circum 
stances  may  be  the  making  of  a  career 
the  most  unpromising,  or  the  ruining 
of  one  the  most  lofty.  The  doorkeep 
er's  watchful  eye  keeps  three  or  four 
important  personages,  or  maybe  a 
score  of  less  important  ones,  in  the  Cab 
inet  room.  Senators  and  Representa- 


20  Ube  president 

tives  have  the  entre*e  bet\veen  10  and  12 
o'clock.  All  others  are  obliged  to  ar 
range  a  special  appointment  through 
Mr.  Loeb,  Secretary  to  the  President. 
The  doorkeeper  admits  the  latter  from 
his  printed  list.  The  privileged  enter 
without  awaiting  the  doorkeeper's  in 
vitation,  swelling  the  audience  until 
sometimes  there  are  twenty  assembled 
in  the  Cabinet  room — men  the  names 
of  half  of  whom  are  famous,  while 
those  of  the  other  half  are  unknown 
save  in  their  village  or  labour  union.  It 
is  not  always  possible  to  distinguish 
the  pillar  of  state  from  the  private  citi 
zen.  One  not  familiar  with  the  figures 
who  are  enacting  the  drama  of  the 
Nation's  Administration  would  find  it 
somewhat  difficult  to  believe  that 
great  things  are  happening  in  these 
rooms. 


In  tbe  TKHbite  Douse  21 

All  within  the  Executive  Office  await 
the  President's  pleasure.  The  rule 
may  be  said  to  be  :  You 

*  In  the 

come  to  the  White  House  for      Audience - 

•,1    j-i       T»       •  Room. 

an  interview  with  the  Presi 
dent,  but  once  you  are  within  it,  the 
President  goes  to  you  to  give  you  the 
interview.  He  does  not  keep  his  seat 
and  summon  you.  He  is  quite  alone 
and  unattended.  He  may  speak  your 
name  or  beckon.  He  is  more  likely  to 
step  up  to  you,  greet  you,  get  at  your 
business,  dispose  of  it,  say  good-bye, 
and  pass  to  another.  In  this  way  he 
will  make  the  circuit  of  the  Cabinet 
room  half  a  dozen  times  of  a  morning. 
Here  it  is  a  case  of  "yes"  or  a  "no." 
Here  it  is  to  hear  a  story  and  make  a 
reference  to  the  proper  department  and 
official.  In  many  instances  it  is  to  con 
sider  and  decide  in  one  minute,  on  the 


22  Ube  president 

feet,  finally,  a  matter  of  importance, 
often  of  vast  consequence.  Now  and 
then  the  President  passes  a  visitor  and 
returns  when  he  has  disposed  of  half 
a  dozen  others  to  have  two  whole  min 
utes  standing  with  him  in  the  nearly 
emptied  room.  Now  and  then  a  Sena 
tor  or  a  Cabinet  secretary  will  be 
motioned  into  the  inner  room  while  the 
President  continues  his  round,  or 
taken  into  it  while  the  others  wait 
watching  the  two  at  the  desk  or  on  the 
divan.  Here  is  a  delegation  to  be 
listened  to  and  answered.  Here  a  dis 
tinguished  citizen  to  be  greeted,  merely. 
Here  a  patriotic  gentleman  anxious 
to  serve  his  country  in  a  remunerative 
office,  to  be  sent  away  with  any  hope 
there  may  be  for  him. 

It   is    a    procession,  the  passing  of 
which    affords  a    panorama     of    the 


fn  tbe  TJdbite  t>ouse  23 

National  life;  the  look  and  bearing  of 
which  makes  one  proud  of  his  fellow- 
countrymen;  the  reception  Panorama 
of  which  makes  him  marvel  NatLl^i 
at  his  country's  President.  Life. 

I  affirm  that  if  any  who  in  these  days 
of  cynicism  despairs  of  popular  gov 
ernment  could  spare  an  hour  in  the 
President's  room  he  would  leave  fresh 
ened  and  sweetened  with  a  sense  of  the 
essential  worth  of  American  civilisa 
tion.  Every  President  has  given  free 
audience  to  representatives  of  the 
people.  But  not  before  has  the  Nation 
been  what  it  is  to-day,  with  its  pos 
sessions  in  the  antipodes  and  its  influ 
ence  in  every  other  capital  on  the 
globe.  And  not  before  has  there  met 
the  visitors  a  man  like  this — a  man 
with  a  mind  so  apt  and  spirit  so  sincere, 
without  self -consciousness  and  without 


24  TIbe  president 

reserve,  a  man  of  such  rarely  failing 
gleefulness  and  yet  such  indomitable 
resolution. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  is  always  President 
and  always  a  very  strong-willed  and 
assertive  President.  He  will  be  master 
or  he  will  die.  And  yet  he  will  not  be 
master  otherwise  than  by  virtue  of  his 
ability  to  prove  that  he  ought  to  be. 
He  maintains  his  right  to  have  his 
way — on  the  ground  that  his  way  is 
right.  He  is  ready  to  go  into  the  arena 
at  any  moment  and  fight  out  all  over 
again  the  question  which  is  the  best 
man,  which  is  the  best  cause.  He  will 
make  no  appeal  to  his  Constitutional 
dignity ;  he  will  not  dominate  by  sym 
bolism.  He  will  not  say :  *  *  I  am  Presi 
dent;  people,  bow  down/'  He  will 
say :  "  I  am  right  on  this  thing,  and  you 
have  got  to  admit  it."  And  it  is  here 


In  tbe  Tldbite  tbouse  25 

in  these  rooms  of  olive  and  ivory  that 
he  is  forever  doing  both  these  things: 
ruling  with  an  indomitability  of  will 
with  which  no  other  President  and 
with  which  scarcely  a  Ptolemy  or  a 
Caesar  ever  ruled,  and  all  the  time 
freely,  with  a  democracy  of  spirit 
impossible  to  conceive,  with  good 
nature,  with  gallant  courtesy,  with  ro 
bust  joy,  maintaining  and  vindicating 
against  all  comers  his  right  to  rule. 


A  VIEW  OF  THE  PRESIDENT  AT 
WORK 

How  Cabinet  Secretaries,  Senators,  Representa 
tives,  Officials  in  General,  and  Private  Citizens 
See  Mr.  Roosevelt  and  Lay  Their  Troubles 
before  Him — National  Affairs  can  Be  both  Big 
and  Little. 

THIS  is  the  manner  of  it: 

A  Cabinet  secretary  is  seated  in 
the  inner  office.  A  dozen  men  are 
standing  in  the  Cabinet  room.  The 
President  is  passing  around  the  table- 
he  never  goes,  so  to  speak,  "with  the 
bottle  "  and  the  hands  of  the  clock,  but 
always  in  the  reverse  direction.  His 
speech  is  explosive,  not  merely  em 
phatic,  and  his  hand-grip  is  strong. 

Let  me  say  here,  what  must  be  kept 

in  mind  constantly,  that  I  report  the 
26 


Ube  president  at  TKIlorfc        27 

President's  words  only  as  I  remember 
them.  No  record  was  kept;  no  notes 
were  taken.  Very  likely  I  may  have 
introduced  locutions  which  were  not  the 
President's — my  own  or  those  of  vis 
itors,  the  impression  of  which  could 
easily  have  become  confused  with  that 
made  by  the  President's  words.  It 
would  be  entirely  unwarrantable  to 
hold  Mr.  Roosevelt  responsible  for  any 
utterance  reported  in  this  manner — nor 
will  any  one  presume  to  do  so.  I  be 
lieve,  however,  that  the  impression  I 
give  of  the  President's  words  and  man 
ner  is  essentially  accurate. 

"  Senator,  I — am  GLAD  to  see 
you.  Senator,  this  is  a — VERY 
great  pleasure.  Only  to  introduce 
Mr.  B—  -?  Well,  Sir,  it  is  a  VERY 
great  pleasure  to  meet  you,  Sir,  a— 
VERY  GREAT  pleasure.  You  please 


28  H  ItMew  of 


me  by  giving  me  this  opportunity. 
Your  daughters?  I  am,  INDEED, 
pleased  to  have  this  visit  from  you. 
It  is  a  GREAT  PLEASURE.  Senator, 
I  THANK  you  for  affording  me  this 
opportunity.  I  lived  in  Dakota  my 
self  before  there  was  a  South  Dakota 
and  I  THOUGHT  I  knew  something 
of  the  possibilities  of  the  country. 
But  who  would  have  DREAMED  of 
this?  We  thought  Dakota  had 
something  to  boast  of  in  my  day, 
but  we  hardly  hoped  for  such 
altogether  satisfactory  and  CHARM 
ING  products  as  THIS!  This  is  a 
GREAT  pleasure,  young  ladies.'* 
They  are  indeed  pretty  girls,  but  a 
sad-faced  veteran,  tall,  and  still  erect 
with  the  remnants  of  military  bearing, 
though  he  visibly  trembles  as  he  sup 
ports  himself  on  his  stick,  is  waiting. 


TTbe  presifcent  at  Worfc          29 

You  would  instinctively  address  him  as, 
"Colonel."  To  him  the  President 
passes: 

"I   am  VERY  glad   indeed  to  see 
you,  Sir.     Have  you  prepared  the 
papers  of  which  I  spoke?     It  would 
be  advisable  to  lose  no  time  in  do 
ing  so.    The  Department  is  exacting 
about    those    matters  —  necessarily 
so,  you  understand.     You  may  de 
pend- 
But  the  old  man,  between  excitement 
and  poor  ears,  can't  follow  the  Presi 
dent's  rapid  utterance  and  throws  up 
a   hand   in   despairing   gesture.      The 
President  begins  again,  stepping  closer 
and    speaking   slowly   and    distinctly. 
Still:   "I   am   very   sorry,   Mr.    Presi 
dent,  that  I  don't  seem  able  quite  to 
follow  you.     I  feared  it  might  be  this 
way,  and  I  have  the  whole  thing  right 


30  H  IDtew  of 


here.  I  have  put  it  all  on  this  paper  in 
the  fewest  possible  words.  I  have 
counted  the  words  and  can't  take  one 
away.  It  will  save  you  trouble." 

That  was  the  only  paper  the  Presi 
dent  accepted  that  day.  "Yes/'  he 
said,  "this  is  indeed  the  very  best  way. 
I  thank  you  for  your  KIND  considera 
tion  of  men  and  the  Nation's  time.  I 
THANK  you,  Sir."  And  the  veteran 
went  away,  his  fingers  pretty  well  used 
up  by  a  friendly  handshake,  but  his 
heart  warm  toward  a  considerate 
President. 

Next  stand  a  Senator  and  a  Governor 

with  a  candidate  to  succeed  Mr.  Ridgely 

as    Controller   of    the    Cur- 

Vacancies 

and  rency.     They  get  little  satis- 

Candidates.     r      ,. 

faction. 

The  Public  Printership  h  on  the 
President's  mind.  He  asks  a  visitor: 


WILLIAM    LOEB,  JR. 

The  President's  Secretary 

From  a  photograph  by  Harris  <t  Ewing 


TTbe  president  at  TKaorfe         31 

"What  do  you  know  about-  -?  Taft 
thinks  well  of  him."  Every  day  some 
one  broaches  the  matter  of  the  Public 
Printer  to  the  President.  He  asks: 
"What  do  you  think  of  -  -?  Loeb 

says  that is  a  fine  fellow.     I  am 

trying  to  find  out  what  the  law  means 
by  'a  practical  printer.'  I  want  some 
body  there  who  will  stop  waste  and 
save  money." 

An  Army  officer  wants  leave  of 
absence.  "Send  me  a  memorandum, 
so  that  I  can  take  it  up  on  Friday  with 
the  Cabinet." 

A  new  Congressman  is  next  in  the 
circle.  He  pulls  out  a  long  letter  from 
the  Postmistress  of  Cement — I  think  it 
is  in  Arizona.  The  President  is  visibly 
torn  between  impatience  and  a  desire 
not  to  hurt  the  visitor's  self-respect. 
"My  DEAR  Sir,  you  must  see 


32  H  Uttew  of 


that  my  hands  are  pretty  full  here. 
I  really  know  nothing  about  this 
case.  You  say  she  has  been  treated 
unfairly,  she  thinks?  That  is  too 
bad.  We  can't  have  injustice  done 
anybody,  least  of  all  a  woman. 
Take  this  matter  up  with  Mr.  Meyer. 
It  is  his  affair  first,  you  know. 
He  may  see  something  of  the  merits 
of  the  case;  really,  I  do  not.  I  have 
never  heard  of  the  good  woman,  and 
to  be  PERFECTLY  candid  with  you, 
I  have  never  heard  of — Cement! 
I  could  n't  act  any  way  until  after  I 
had  had  a  report  from  the  Post 
master  General.  That  is  the  way 
for  you  to  get  at  it.  It  is  a  VERY 
great  pleasure  to  have  seen  you  and 
I  hope  you  will  COME  often.  Good- 
day,  Sir." 
The  President  passes  on. 


Ube  president  at  Morfc         33 

Remember  that  Mr.  Roosevelt  never 
speaks  a  word  in  the  ordinary  con 
versational  tone.  He  utters  Affairs  Big 
everything  with  immense  and  Little, 
emphasis,  his  face  energised  from 
the  base  of  the  neck  to  the  roots 
of  the  hair,  his  arms  usually  gesticulat 
ing,  his  words  bursting  forth  like  pro 
jectiles,  his  whole  being  radiating  force. 
He  does  not  speak  fast,  always  paus 
ing  before  an  emphatic  word,  and 
letting  it  out  with  the  spring  of 
accumulated  energy  behind  it.  The 
President  does  n't  allow  his  witticisms 
to  pass  without  enjoying  them.  He  al 
ways  stops — indeed,  he  has  to  stop  till 
the  convulsion  of  merriment  is  over 
and  he  can  regain  his  voice. 

"My  dear  Sir,  I  AM  glad  to  see 
you.  How  DARE  you  introduce 
yourself  to  me!  I  have  not  for- 


34  H  IDiew  of 


gotten  your  affair,  and  you  will 
find  that  instructions  have  been 
given  to  have  your  very  reasonable 
request  complied  with.  I  wish  you 
good  luck,  Sir,  the  very  BEST  of  good 
luck.  It  has  been  a — very — GREAT 
pleasure  to  serve  you." 

"My  DEAR  Governor,  how  GOOD  of 
you  to  come  to  see  me  again!  I 
must  have  more  time  for  you.  Wait 
one  moment.  Mr.  Bartholdt,  I  am 

INDEED GLAD  to  S66  VOU." 

Representative  Bartholdt,  who  is 
better  known  as  a  peace  advocate  than 
as  a  Congressman,  has  come  on  a  small 
matter  of  $90,000,000  for  new  public 
buildings.  He  goes  away  with  the  im 
pression  that  $15,000,000  is  about  all 
Congress  ought  to  recommend  on  the 
eve  of  a  Presidential  campaign. 

This  is  a  quiet,  almost  whispered  con- 


president  at  "Odorfe         35 


ference.     With  the  next  in  the  circle 

the    President   enters   into   a   subject 

which   arouses    him.     He    bursts    out 

against  his  detractors.     His  arms  begin 

to  pump.     His  finger  rises  in  the  air. 

He  beats  one  palm  with  the  other  fist. 

''They  have  no  conception  of  what 

I  'm   driving    at,   absolutely    NONE. 

It    PASSES    BELIEF  —  the  capacity  of 

the  human   mind    to    resist   intelli 

gence.     Some   people    WON'T   learn, 

WON'T    think,    WON'T    know.     The 

amount  of  —  stupid  PERVERSITY  that 

lingers  in  the  heads  of  some  men 

is  a  miracle.  " 

The  President  passes  on  to  Senator 
Taylor  and  Representative  Hull,  and 
hears  what  they  have  to  say  for  their 
candidate,  a  Mr.  Asbury  Wright,  for 
the  Tennessee  vacancy  on  the  Federal 
bench. 


36  H  IDfew  ot 


Then  he  goes  back  to  the  Governor 
of  Nebraska  and  Senator  Burkett  and 
A  Nebraska  the  delegation  accompany- 
Deiegation.  jng  them,  cattlemen  from 
Nebraska  asking  the  passage  of  laws 
that  will  enable  them  to  lease  and 
fence  Government  lands  for  pasturage 
purposes.  It  is  one  of  those  cases  in 
which 'clamorous  class  prejudice  would 
detect  a  conflict  between  the  interest 
of  capital  and  the  interest  of  the 
small  man.  The  President  sees  that 
and  puts  the  point  at  once.  Sena 
tor  Burkett  has  prepared  a  bill  which 
the  delegation  declares  meets  the  wishes 
of  the  big  ranch  owners  and  the  little 
cattlemen;  it  gives  the  big  herders  the 
chance  to  range  their  cattle  on  Govern 
ment  lands  under  lease,  but  allows  ac 
tual  settlers  to  take  up  lands  whether 
or  not  under  lease. 


ZTbe  presifcent  at  TKHorfc         37 

The  President  gives  the  delegation  to 
understand  that  he  will  do  everything 
in  his  power  to  help  them. 

"  But  the  fate  of  the  bill,"  he  adds 
with  a  laugh,  "lies  with  the  'co 
ordinate  branch/  I  am  not  that,  too, 
all  reports  to  the  contrary  notwith 
standing.  But  this  is  precisely 
what  I  have  been  working  for  and 
what  I  stand  for,  in  every  branch 
of  the  Government — to  give  the  big 
men  and  the  little  men  both  the 
best  possible  chance.  Safeguard 
them  equally,  too.  That  is  what  I 
have  been  trying  to  do  in  the  case  of 
combinations — to  encourage  good 
and  beneficent  combinations  and  to 
prevent  bad  ones.  But  just  as  I 
am  handicapped  in  your  matter  of 
the  Government  lands,  which  ought 
not  to  be  permitted  to  lie  idle, 


H  Dtew  or 


which  ought  to  be  put  to  lease  un 
der  the  best  conditions  possible  until 
the  settler  who  wants  them  per 
manently  comes  along,  just  so  I 
have  been  hindered  and  embarrassed 
by  the  ill-devised  and  foolish  and 
ineffectual  anti-trust  law  which  works 
wrong  any  way  you  look  at  it." 
Again  let  me  say  that  this  is  an  im 
pression  from  memory,  not  a  record  of 
the  President's  words. 

Then  the  President  goes  into  the  par 
ticulars  of  cattle-raising  with  the  dele 
gation.  He  knows  as  much  about  the 
subject  as  any  of  them.  The  language 
of  the  range  is  freely  on  his  lips;  the 
special  terms  and  the  special  knowledge 
of  the  ranchman  is  his  in  full.  He 
chuckles  as  he  tells  the  story  of  a 
point  he  had  won  for  the  cattlemen 
over  the  legislative  branch.  No  matter 


ZTbe  president  at  Worfe         39 

what — it  was  a  simple  affair  of  slip 
ping  a  certain  provision  into  an  appro 
priation  bill. 

"I'm  a  Western  man  myself," 
laughs  the  President,  "and  we 
Western  men  are  quick  with  our 
guns.  I  'd  like  to  have  seen  Brother 

's   face    when    he   learned    the 

awful  truth.  Gentlemen,  I  can't 
TELL  you  how  GREAT  a  pleasure 
this  has  been.  I  KNOW  your  coun 
try  and  I  LIKE  it.  I  like  the  LIFE 
of  it.  By  George,  I  do!  Let  's  not 
forget  each  other,  boys.  Good  luck 
to  all  of  you.  A  great  pleasure, 
a  VERY — GREAT  pleasure  indeed. 
Governor,  take  a  seat  in  there  with 
the  Secretary." 

It  is  a  question  not  to  be  decided 
whether  the  President  or  the  Nebras- 
kans  were  the  happier  during  their 


40  H  IDtew  of 


interview.  The  President  had  lectured 
them  on  their  own  subject,  told  them 
stories  of  their  own  life,  and  laughed 
with  them  till  all  were  convulsed  and 
redder  in  the  face  than  the  prairie  sun 
ever  made  them.  They  were  good 
stories,  too,  and  merited  the  prosperity 
they  would  enjoy  anyway  if  they 
were  not  worth  telling.  He  had  sent 
them  off  with  a  shout  of  laughter,  him 
self  too  convulsed  to  do  more  than 
wave  a  final  good-bye. 

The  President  notices  a  button  in 
the  lapel.  "  Well,  comrade,  what  was 

c  your  regiment?"  is  a  sim- 

mander-in-  pie  phrase,  but  it  facilitates 
the  hesitating  speech  of  an 
embarrassed  visitor. 

A  Spanish  war  hero  has  a  concern  he 
wants  to  lay  before  the  President.  A 
rosette  gives  the  clue  as  to  his  Army 


II 

uu 


UJ    £ 

o  r; 


o  >> 


ZTbe  president  at  Udorfc          41 

experience.  "  What  is  your  rank,  com 
rade?  ONLY  a  Captain?  Why  do  you 
say  ONLY  a  Captain  ?  You  ought  to  be 
THANKFUL  you  ARE  only  a  Captain. 
Don't  envy  any  officer  who  has  higher 
rank,"  says  the  Commander-in-Chief 
earnestly.  "I  was  overjoyed  to  be  a 
Lieutenant-Colonel,  because  it  gave  me 
a  chance  to  get  to  the  front." 

The  President  does  like  the  military 
life.  He  does  not  regard  his  experience 
during  the  Spanish  War  as  an  episode 
by  the  way.  He  is  very  proud  of  it. 
Still,  when  the  other  day  a  young 
woman  lately  back  from  an  excursion  to 
Havana  innocently  asked  him  if  he 
had  ever  been  in  Cuba,  the  legendary 
author  of  ''Alone  on  San  Juan  Hill" 
laughed  as  uproariously  as  anybody 
could.  I  presume  the  President  has 
about  as  much  military  experience  as 


42  H  Ifliew  of 


Colonel  Washington  had  when  he  was 
chosen  to  command  the  Continental 
Army.  If  that  does  not  give  him  the 
right  to  call  a  Civil  War  veteran  "Com 
rade,"  perhaps  the  fact  that  he  is  con 
stitutional  Commander-in-Chief  may 
suggest  to  the  President  this  way  of 
greeting  a  veteran  with  a  pleasant 
compliment. 

Here  is  a  delegation  from  the  Phila 
delphia  Board  of  Trade,  introduced  by 
Findin  Representative  McCreary. 
Work  for  Another  jolly  greeting,  but 

Philadelphia    X1_  .  - 

the  matter  is  not  happy. 
The  League  Island  Navy  Yard  is  dis 
charging  men  and  shortening  the 
time  of  others.  The  President  would 
like  to  see  the  mechanics  kept  em 
ployed  by  the  Government,  but  it  is  a 
case  of  short  appropriations. 

"I    am      not      the    'co-ordinate 
branch,' "  he  says,  "much  as  I  some- 


ZTbe  president  at  Morfe         43 

times  wish  I  were,  much  as  I  some 
times  wish  I  could  go  down  the 
Avenue  and  tell  some  of  those 
people  how  to  vote.  We  hope  to 
do  better  by  Philadelphia  both  in 
the  matter  of  work  for  the  navy- 
yards  and  workmen  in  the  army 
stores.  But  that  is  subject  to  the  will 
of  Providence  and  Uncle  Joe.  Let 
me  see,  did  I  mention  Providence 
first  ?  I  heard  some  one  advising  the 
other  day  that  the  President  lie  down 
on  Uncle  Joe.  That  man  didn't 
know  Uncle  Joe.  Well,  gentlemen, 
go  see  Taft.  Tell  him  you  came  at 
my  request  and  that  I  want  him  to 
do  anything  that  can  be  done  legit 
imately." 

Don't  imagine  that  there  is  ever  any 
lack  of  emphasis.  This  is  only  the 
substance  of  it,  but  in  fact  it  is  all 


44  H  IDiew  of 


gone  over  substantially.  Don't  imagine 
either  that  the  jokes  are  casual  only. 
You  don't  smile  with  Mr.  Roosevelt; 
you  shout  with  laughter  with  him  and 
then  you  shout  again  while  he  tries  to 
cork  up  more  laugh,  and  sputters, 

"  Come,  gentlemen,  let  us  be  serious. 
This  is  most  unbecoming.  And  there 
are  Senators  present,  wise  and  grave 
men.  Only  when  I  think  of  my  sins 
against  the  '  co-ordinate  branch ' ' 
and  everybody  is  off  again,  including 
the  Senators. 

A  member  of  the  Philadelphia  dele 
gation  had  had  good  hunting  in  North 
ern  Pennsylvania  last  Winter.  The 
President  is  eager  to  hear  about  it,  but 
grows  suspicious  at  the  suggestion  that 
he  try  it  himself. 

"Come    up  to    Pike   County  and 
have  a  shot?     Ah!  I  know  precisely 


president  at  Worfc        45 


how  it  would  be.  I  should  n't  get  a 
shot,  and  I  should  be  told  that  I 
should  have  come  last  year  or  next 
month,  or  that  game  was  plenty  just 
over  the  border  in  the  next  county  ! 
Why,  I  spent  twelve  days  last  winter 
getting  one  bear.  Twelve  days!" 

"  And  now  I  must  get  over  and  see 
the  next  President,"  says  a  visitor. 
"  Yes,  go  see  Taft,"  the  Pres-  The  Nelt 
ident  responds  instantly  President 

—  "Taft." 

without  a  quiver  of  eye  or 
mouth. 

All  this  has  taken  perhaps  ten  min 
utes,  and  now  the  President  joins  the 
Secretary  of  Agriculture,  who  intro 
duces  the  members  of  the  Pure  Food 
Advisory  Board. 

Then  there  are  two  minutes  with 
Governor  Sheldon  on  the  Currency 


46  H  Ifliew  of 


Relief  bill  and  the  Republican  prospects 
in  Nebraska. 

The  Attorney  General  enters.  I  had 
thought  the  President  couldn't  listen. 
It  is  a  mistake.  He  can  listen  to  the 
drawl  of  Mr.  Bonaparte;  listen  to  the 
high- voiced  protestations  of  Secretary 
Wilson;  listen  to  the  man  from  the 
other  side  of  the  world,  who  may  have 
tucked  away  about  him  somewhere  a 
piece  of  new  knowledge  or  a  new  idea; 
listen  gravely  to  the  utterances  of  the 
spokesmen  of  a  delegation,  and  re 
ward  him  with  a  beaming  smile  which 
confesses  that  it  was  as  well  said  as 
if  the  President  had  said  it  himself. 
The  President  can  do  another  thing;  he 
can  bring  his  interlocutor  back  to  the 
subject  with  a  word.  And  he  can  make 
an  inquiry  that  opens  up  the  heart  of 
the  whole  matter.  I  was  much  im- 


TTbe  president  at  TKHorft          47 

pressed  by  the  keenness  of  the  Presi 
dent's  questions. 

If  there  is  jocularity,  there  is  plenty 
of  seriousness  too.  It  would  be  kill 
ing  business  without  the  re-  Is  This 
lief  of  fun.  The  President  Paranoia? 
has  grown  in  suavity  of  manner, 
and  his  good-humour  has  deepened. 
He  is  by  nature  severe — he  is  severe 
with  himself — and  he  is  masterful ;  but 
he  has  learned  to  find  recreation  in  the 
indulgence  of  a  sense  of  the  ridiculous, 
and  he  has  grown  kindlier.  His  talent 
for  order  surprised  me.  He  never  looks 
at  the  clock,  but  he  seems  to  have  a 
subconscious  sense  of  the  passing  of 
the  minutes.  He  takes  up  a  new  man 
with  a  new  interest  like  a  machine 
grabbing  a  new  piece  of  metal  to  shape 
it  to  the  requirement  in  precisely  so 
many  seconds.  He  works  off  a  crowd 


43  H  Diew  of 


as  if  by  the  stop-watch.  Not  a  second 
is  lost.  He  sees  with  eyes  fitted  by 
nature  with  a  wide-angle  lens,  com 
manding  the  whole  room  at  once,  but 
intent  on  the  eye  of  the  man  to  whom 
he  is  talking.  When  at  his  desk  he 
is  signing  a  document,  or  putting  his 
"  O.K."  on  an  order,  or  writing  an  hour 
or  a  name  in  a  blank  schedule  of  ap 
pointments,  during  the  second  while  his 
new  vis-k-vis  is  settling  himself  or 
reaching  into  his  pocket  for  a  paper.  A 
noiseless  secretary  comes  in  every  few 
minutes  and  gathers  up  the  proofs  of 
this  unobserved  work.  There  isn't  an 
usher  nor  a  master  of  ceremony  nor 
an  attendant  nor  a  guard  within  the  two 
rooms,  yet  every  man  is  seen  in  proper 
order,  under  the  briskest  but  seemly 
conditions,  and  his  affair  dispatched 
swiftly,  yet  with  ample  opportunity  for 


Ube  president  at  Morfc          49 

its  complete  airing  (I  can't  too  strongly 
declare  that  if  any  man  fails  to  get 
a  full  hearing  it  is  his  own  fault) — all 
with  a  good-humour,  a  frankness,  an 
eager  purpose  to  have  everything  clear, 
and  a  practical  efficiency  that  would 
be  wonderful  in  any  hard-headed  busi 
ness  man.  This  is  the  paranoiac  of  his 
irresponsible  accusers;  the  man  who, 
some  have  not  scrupled  to  hint,  is  a 
dipsomaniac,  a  cigarette  fiend,  and  a 
victim  of  pathological  ego  enlargement. 
One  morning  a  little  girl  had  come 
in  with  the  last  delegation  of  the  day. 
Her  mother  had  cunningly  put  an  auto 
graph  album  in  her  hands  against  the 
case  of  her  attracting  the  President's 
attention.  She  did  attract  it,  and  so 
did  the  album.  The  big  man  took 
it,  turned  to  its  front  page,  and 
found  the  kiddie's  name — "  Rosalie,"  I 


Ube  president  at  KHorfc 


think  it  was — carried  it  over  to  the 
Cabinet  table,  sat  down  in  his  big  chair 
and  wrote  an  affectionate  sentiment  on 
a  leaf  that  will  probably  be  preserved 
for  grandchildren  to  read.  Then  he 
had  time  enough  to  go  back  to  his  own 
desk  for  a  flower,  poking  about  over 
three  or  four  bouquets,  and  picking  out 
an  especially  pretty  white  carnation  to 
charm  her  with  a  moment  before  he 
sent  her  away  with  a  gleeful  shout  of 
possession.  Somehow  one  can't  dread 
with  overwhelming  fear  the  dark  de 
signs  of  a  man  who  sits  with  his  legs 
curled  under  him  and  bothers  to  pick 
just  the  right  flower  for  a  little  girl. 


THE  SPIRIT  OF  THE  WHITE 
HOUSE 

Democracy  and  an  Imperious  Will — An  Ever- 
Ready  Courtesy  and  Ever-Bubbling  Good- 
Humour  from  a  Man  with  a  Neck  of  Steel — 
Power,  without  Its  Circumstance,  and  Roars 
of  Laughter. 

THAT  is  the  way  it  goes — not  that 
this  is  more  than  a  hint  of  it,  or 
carries  the  least  suggestion  of  the 
big  things  that  are  going  on  but 
cannot  be  referred  to  here.  It  is  the 
most  wonderful  scene  in  the  world.  It 
is  the  greatest  exhibition  that  has  ever 
been  given  of  democracy  and  of  power. 
This  mingling  of  Senators  and  Justices 
with  cattlemen  and  railroad  mechanics 
in  the  audience-room  of  the  head  of  a 
nation  is  a  thing  to  ponder  on,  and 

51 


52  ITbe  Spirit  of 

when  you  consider  that  he  is  the  most 
autocratic  spirit  the  Republic  has  seen 
in  power  and  yet  behold  him  do  more 
homage  to  the  rights  of  democracy 
and  magnify  them  beyond  any  prede 
cessor,  the  wonder  becomes  a  phe 
nomenon  for  history  to  resolve. 

President  Roosevelt  is  a  ruler.  We 
don't  use  the  word  in  this  country,  and 
don't  like  it.  But  we  have  the  fact— 
and  it  is  evident  we  do  like  it.  No 
European  sovereign  rules  as  Roosevelt 
rules.  But  he  does  it  by  sheer  force 
of  character — and  let  us  save  our  faces 
by  adding,  by  the  consent  and  desire  of 
the  people,  who  believe  him  to  be 
right  in  what  he  demands.  He  does  n't 
do  it  (this  is  my  point  here)  by  bring 
ing  into  play  any  mysterious  power 
inherent  in  his  office.  He  doesn't 
do  it  by  surrounding  himself  with 


THE    PRESIDENT    AT    HIS    DESK 

From  a  photograph  by  H.  C.  White  Co.,  X.  Y. 

Copyright,  1008 


ZTbe  Mblte  t>ouse  53 

the  circumstance  of  supreme  power. 
He  is  primus  inter  pares  by  virtue  of  a 
grim  determination  to  be,  assisted  by  a 
sincerity  and  perspicacity  such  as  po 
litical  opposition  has  never  before  met 
and  now  does  not  know  how  to  meet. 
The  President  is  imperious  because  he 
thinks  he  is  right.  He  will  meet  all 
comers,  on  the  ground  without  handi 
cap,  and  have  it  out  fairly,  and  maybe 
hotly.  There  is  just  this  much  formal 
ity  about  it:  everybody  says  "Mr. 
President,"  and  everybody  rises  when 
the  President  does.  There  is  all  proper 
decorum,  but  it  is  the  decorum  that 
is  observed  among  gentlemen  every 
where.  In  the  midst  is  the  Executive 
"Chair"  of  the  patriotic  orators;  if 
there  be  any  reality  corresponding 
to  that  pleasing  symbol,  it  is  the  leather 
throne  from  which  the  President  pre- 


54  TTbe  Spirit  of 

sides  over  his  Cabinet.  This  is  daily  a 
receptacle  for  the  overcoats  of  private 
gentlemen,  and  now  and  then  its  arm 
provides  a  seat  for  a  story-telling 
Congressman.  To-day  the  most  mas 
terly  President  of  history  is  in  the 
White  House — but  the  Presidential 
manner  is  absent.  There  is  a  Presi 
dent  who  shakes  his  forefinger  and 
brings  his  hand  down  on  the  table, 
but  one  who  never  patronises  or 
draws  back  into  the  robes  of  his  office, 
one  who  is  candid  always  and  with 
everybody  to  the  point  of  indiscretion, 
who  plainly  has  warm  feelings,  personal 
feelings,  too,  and  breaks  out  with  them 
occasionally — though  he  exercises  far, 
far  more  patience  than  he  has  ever  been 
given  credit  for. 

These  two  points  I  may  not  return 
to  (they  are  not  picturesque),  but  I 


Ube  TRUbtte  Ibouse  55 

want  to  emphasise  them  now:  Mr. 
Roosevelt's  Patience  and  his  Order 
liness.  Nothing  surprised  Patience 
me  more.  He  is  called  on  Order,  Good- 

-•  .-  rr        r      i        -r  Humour. 

daily  to  suffer  fools,  if  not 
gladly,  at  least  with  resignation,  and 
he  has  learned  to  do  it.  In  dealing 
with  men  not  fools,  also,  the  Presi 
dent  has,  I  think,  learned  a  large 
measure  of  forbearance.  I  fancy  that 
the  scrutiny  of  his  public  acts  in  the 
light  of  his  private  reasons  would  show 
that  he  is  not  the  impetuous  man  we 
have  conceived  him.  If  I  do  not  mis 
take,  he  has  cultivated  control  of  his 
temper.  I  'have  very  good  reason 
indeed  to  recollect  a  scene  of  four  years 
ago  when  the  thunder  was  loose  in  the 
White  House  and — but  this  is  a  study 
of  the  President  as  he  is  to-day. 

The  popular  idea  of  him  scarcely 


$6  XTbe  Spirit  ot 

credits  the  President  with  the  posses 
sion  of  a  sense  of  order.  It  is,  in  point 
of  fact,  one  of  his  most  marked  char 
acteristics.  His  mind  is  orderly;  its 
contents  are  thoroughly  arranged;  his 
workshop  is  scrupulously  neat.  The 
division  and  subdivision  of  his  day  is 
the  perfection  of  system.  He  goes 
through  every  day  on  a  time-table 
which  a  railroad  engineer  could  follow 
no  more  sharply.  His  sense  of  the 
importance  of  time  is  the  basis  of  his 
fondness  for  railroad  men. 

The  President's  good -humour  and 
candour  have  not  been  sufficiently  ap 
preciated.  It  is  good  to  have  a  Presi 
dent  with  a  laugh  like  Mr.  Roosevelt's. 
That  laugh  is  working  a  good  deal 
too;  hardly  does  half  an  hour,  seldom 
do  five  minutes  go  by  without  a  joyful 
cachinnation  from  the  Presidential 


Ube  TKHbite  t)ou0e  57 

throat.  When  Secretary  Taft  comes 
in,  there  is  n't  room  in  the  White 
House  for  any  sound  other  than  the 
chortling  laughter  of  two  big  men. 
The  Secretary's  laugh  is  a  "  Ha !  ha !  ha ! 
ha!"  with  a  definite  and  ascertainable 
number  of  paroxysms.  The  President's 
is  a  succession  of  chuckles — a  sort  of 
mitrailleuse  discharge  of  laughs.  The 
fun  engulfs  his  whole  face;  his  eyes 
close,  and  speech  expires  in  a  silent 
gasp  of  joy.  It  is  clear  that  both  men 
get  a  lot  of  fun  out  of  life. 

For  you  get  no  conception  of  the 
scene  unless  you  understand  that  the 

business  of  State  is  constant- 
No  Back 
ly    relieved     with    anecdote          stairs, 

and  good-humour.  It  is  car-  No  Closcts' 
ried  on  in  that  spirit,  without  any 
reservations,  with  no  uneasiness  of 
conscience,  with  intentions  as  light  as 


58  Ube  umbite  Douse 

day  and  as  care-free.  There  isn't 
any  secrecy  about  the  place.  There 
is  n't  a  back  stairway,  nor  a  side  door, 
nor  yet  a  closet  in  the  place.  A  clothes- 
pole  serves  for  the  ministerial  wardrobe. 
This  is  the  marvel. 

"I  couldn't  do  it  otherwise,"  the 
President  said  to  me  when  I  ex 
pressed  my  astonishment  at  the 
candour  and  publicity  that  prevailed. 
"I  couldn't  and  I  wouldn't.  I 
don't  know  any  other  way.  I  rest 
everything  on  the  righteousness  of 
my  cause.  Other  Presidents  have 
been  less  candid?  Then  they  were 
abler  men  than  I  am.  I  can't, 
simply  can't  keep  any  secrets.  I 
can  work  only  in  the  open  daylight 
and  before  the  sight  of  men." 


A     TYPICAL     DAY    WITH     THE 
PRESIDENT 

Taft  Gets  the  First  Conference,  while  Beveridge 
Waits — A  Congressman  Reprimanded — The 
Ends  of  the  World,  the  Extremes  of  Social 
Station,  Contrasting  Ages,  and  Causes  In 
numerable  and  Diverse  Dealt  with  by  an 
Agile  Mind. 

LET  us  follow  the  President  through 
a  typical  day  in  the  Executive  Cham 
ber.  To  avoid  any  doubt  as  to  its 
being  really  a  definite  day,  I  will  say 
that  it  is  Thursday,  March  26th. 

The  President  enters  his  office  at 
9:25.  Five  minutes  later  Secretary 
Loeb,  who  has  been  on  hand  for  half 
an  hour,  comes  into  the  President's 
room  with  a  bundle  of  mail.  The  Presi 
dent  runs  over  it  and  rapidly  dictates 

59 


60  H  Topical 


replies;  most  of  his  correspondence, 
however,  he  gets  rid  of  in  the  after 
noon.  At  9:50  the  Secretary  of  War 
stalks  in  and  is  greeted  with  a  shout. 
Business  of  the  correspondence  sort 
languishes.  The  doors  connecting  the 
Cabinet  room  are  closed,  but  Senators 
are  gathering.  Mr.  Beveridge  comes 
in,  his  rapid  stride  overtaking  Mr.  Mc- 
Cumber  of  North  Dakota.  The  Senator 
from  Indiana  is  worried:  what  with  a 
diplomatic  embarrassment,  a  crisis  with 
Venezuela,  and  the  Civic  Federation 
bill  sent  to  the  wrong  committee,  Mr. 
Beveridge  is  anxious  for  the  Adminis 
tration.  However,  he  has  come  to  put 
out  his  hand  and  steady  the  ark. 
"Isn't  it  a  shame,  Mack,"  cries  Bev 
eridge,  half  seriously,  ''that  we  should 
have  to  waste  our  time  here,  we  Sena 
tors  of  the  United  States,  waiting  for 


TKHitb  tbe  president  61 

a  President!"  Presently  the  Indiana 
statesman  is  joined  by  Congressmen 
Overstreet  and  Charles  Landis,  one  of 
three  brothers  who  sustain  in  Federal 
offices  in  this  generation  the  reputa 
tion  of  a  remarkable  family.  Indiana 
is  always  a  lively  subject.  Yesterday 
Senator  Hemingway  was  here.  They 
are  getting  their  final  instructions 
before  going  West  into  the  fight.  While 
they  wait,  B  eve  ridge — deep  on  his 
front  engraven  deliberation  sits,  and 
public  care — urges  Landis  to  give  him 
self  to  the  raising  of  red  pigs;  the 
Durrack  Jersey  porker  multiplies  faster, 
lives  on  less,  and  is  better  meat  than 
any  other  breed.  All  Indiana  is  devot 
ing  itself  to  the  red  pig.  Before  Sec 
retary  Taft  leaves  there  has  been  some 
serious  conversation,  but  the  Indiana 
statesmen  warm  up  the  atmosphere. 


62  H  Apical 


Before  they  go  they  stand  up  in  a  row 
and  take  a  solemn  oath  never  to  divulge 
a  Presidential  joke  which  has  been 
passed  around  in  writing.  The  Presi 
dent  on  his  part  indorses  on  the  back  of 
the  memorandum  of  his  wit  the  words  : 
"To  be  recalled  under  no  circum 
stances/' 

If  this  record  gives  any  idea  that 
the  jocularity  in  the  President's  office 

The  Wimey  is  excessive  or  unseemly,  it 
Case  Comes  is  time  to  correct  that  im- 

Up. 

pression. 

When  a  Representative  from  Michi 
gan  appeared  on  an  errand,  of  the  issue 
of  which  he  was  probably  unsuspicious, 
there  was  no  fun  going.  The  gentleman 
is  a  member  of  the  sub-committee  of 
the  House  Judiciary  Committee,  which 
the  day  before  had  reported  on  the  case 
of  Judge  Wilfley  of  the  United  States 


TPttlitb  tbe  iPresifcent  63 

Court  for  China  at  Shanghai.  The 
conditions  at  Shanghai  are  notorious. 
Taking  advantage  of  the  extra-terri- 
toriality  provisions,  every  species  of 
vice  and  corruption  has  flourished 
under  the  pretence  of  American  legali 
sation.  Judge  Wilfley  was  sent  to 
Shanghai  to  clean  it  up.  He  is  not  pre 
cisely  a  kid-gloved  man.  A  sweet  and 
gentle  soul  would  hardly  be  adapted 
to  meet  the  case.  The  Judge  has,  of 
course,  made  bitter  enemies,  and  they 
have  pursued  him  to  Washington,  de 
manding  his  impeachment.  A  clique  in 
Congress,  headed  by  Representative 
Waldo  of  New  York,  is  fighting  him. 
The  sub-committee's  report  was  am 
biguous,  but  pointed  to  a  censure  of 
Wilfley.  The  caller  had  signed  that 
report. 

Inasmuch  as  this  incident  was  the 


64  H  Topical 


subject  of  a  debate  in  the  House  of 
Representatives  on  Friday,  March  2  ;th, 
I  have  no  hesitation  in  recounting  it 
here.  The  charge  was  made  in  Con 
gress  by  Mr.  John  Sharp  Williams, 
Democratic  leader,  that  the  President 
had  violated  Section  Six  of  the  First 
Article  of  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States,  which  provides  that  no 
Representative  of  the  people  shall  be 
called  on  to  account  in  any  other  place 
for  his  utterance  in  Congress.  The 
minority  leader  added  that  the  fore 
fathers  had  inserted  that  clause  "  be 
cause  it  had  been  the  habit  of  George 
III.  of  England  to  call  to  the  King's 
palace  Members  of  Parliament  and  be 
rate  them  because  of  their  votes  in 
Parliament,  or  when  Members  of  Parlia 
ment  called  upon  other  business  to  take 
advantage  of  the  visit  to  berate  them 


Mitb  tbe  president  65 

and  to  class  them  as  King's  friends  or 
no  King's  friends."  Mr.  Williams 
promised  that,  if  the  evidence  showed 
that  the  member  of  whom  I  write  had 
been  called  to  account  by  the  Presi 
dent,  he  would  propose  that  the  House 
examine  whether  or  not  there  had  been 
on  the  part  of  the  President  a  breach 
of  the  privileges  of  Congress. 

This  is  what  happened:  The  Rep 
resentative  had  come  to  the  White 
House  that  morning  to  in-  . 

A  Represen- 

troduce  the  Governor  of  his  tative 

State.  The  President  ex 
changed  a  few  words  with  the  Governor, 
pleasantly  enough,  and  then  turned  sud 
denly  to  the  Congressman,  and  without 
parley  addressed  him,  as  nearly  as  I  can 
remember,  thus: 

"I  want  to  know,  Sir,  how  you 
could  put   your  name  to  a  report 


66  H  Uppical 


which  does  rank  injustice  to  a  ca 
pable  and  honest  official,  striving 
his  best  to  do  his  duty  amidst  most 
untoward  conditions!  I  want  to 
know  what  you  were  thinking  of 
to  condemn  a  Judge  without  giving 
him  a  hearing!  This  is  a  clear  case 
of  vile  conspiracy  against  an  up 
right  and  a  fearless  man  who  is 
serving  his  country  in  a  place  of 
danger  and  hard  work.  Your  re 
port  has  sent  joy  to  the  hearts  of 
the  corruptionists  of  the  city  where 
he  sat  and  judged  in  uprightness. 
It  has  put  a  deeper  stain,  even  than 
that  which  rested  there  before  this 
man  began  to  scrub  it  out,  upon  the 
American  flag  in  the  Far  East.  It 
has  made  it  harder  for  this  Ad 
ministration  to  uphold  abroad  the 
good  name  of  the  Nation.  It  is  a 


TJClftb  tbe  ipresffcent  67 

most  outrageous  act.  Nothing  more 
unfortunate  could  possibly  have  hap 
pened.  You  have  done  a  wrong  to 
American  interests  that  it  will  take 
years  to  right — if  it  can  ever  be 
righted.  The  conditions  against 
which  this  man  fought  are  notori 
ous.  He  went  there  for  the  pur 
pose  of  confronting  them,  and  his 
brave  stand  has  been  supported— 
by  whom?  By  those  from  whom 
he  had  a  right  to  suspect  support? 
By  the  Congress?  No.  You  have 
made  it  possible  for  them  to  say 
over  there:  'Oh,  yes,  while  Roose 
velt  is  in  office,  or  while  Root  is  in 
office,  American  Judges  who  do 
justice  abroad  will  be  protected. 
But  when  they  go  out,  everything 
will  go  back  to  where  it  was  before. 
The  Administration  is  not  supported 


68  H 


by  the  body  of  American  people.  ' 
The  Representative  attempted  to 
defend  himself  by  urging  that  the 
reference  to  his  committee  allowed  no 
other  report.  The  sub-committee  was 
asked  to  determine  simply  whether  on 
the  evidence  submitted  a  prima  facie 
case  had  been  made  out.  The  report 
distinctly  stated  that  it  was  based  on 
this  reference  and  stated  furthermore 
that  Judge  Wilfley  had  not  been  heard 
in  his  own  defence. 

The  President  was  not  mollified  in  the 
least.  He  understood  all  that.  That, 
Mr.  Waldo  indeed,  was  precisely  the 
Beneath  point.  It  was  the  commit- 

Discussion. 

tee's  duty  to  decline  to  make 
a  report  on  such  grounds.  It  was  the 
committee's  duty  to  say  that  the  condi 
tions  of  the  reference  were  impossible 
and  might  lead  to  the  condemnation  of 


tbe  president  69 


an  innocent  man,  and  that  it  therefore 
declined  to  report,  on  the  ground  that 
it  did  not  have  the  facts  in  its  purview. 
"To  send  forth  to  the  world  a 
report  like  this  is  a  most  cowardly 
and  outrageous  thing.  I  will  say 
nothing  of  the  attitude  of  Mr.  Waldo. 
His  attitude  is  beyond,  beneath,  dis 
cussion.  I  cannot  trust  myself  to 
speak  of  it.  But  I  must  say  I  cannot 
see,  Sir,  how  you  could  put  your 
name  to  a  piece  of  rank  injustice 
like  this.  You  are  a  man.  Suppose 
this  were  a  case  in  which  the  good 
name  of  a  woman  were  involved. 
Would  you  sign  a  report  on  a 
hypothetical  question?  Would  you 
stamp  the  name  of  that  woman 
forever  with  an  official  declaration 
that,  if  the  facts  were  as  they  were 
alleged  to  be,  though  it  had  to  be  ad- 


70  H  Apical 


mitted  she  had  had  no  opportunity 
to  offer  evidence  tending  to  prove 
her  honour,  she  was  an  evil  woman  ? 
You  know  you  wouldn't.     The  tem 
per  of  the  American  people  would 
not  stand  for  such  a  thing.    The  good 
name  of  a  woman  is  a  jewel  to  be 
guarded  with  extremest  care.     Shall 
we  be  more  jealous  of  anything  than 
of  the  good  name  of  America  in  the 
other   hemisphere?     I  tell   you  the 
thing  is  outrageous." 
The  President's  manner  was  stern  in 
the  extreme;  his  language  was  scathing, 
yet  he  did  not  lose  his  temper.     His 
attitude    and    bearing    was    that    of 
one  administering  a  rebuke  as  to  the 
justice  and  necessity  of  which  there 
could  be  no  doubt — as,  indeed,  there 
can   be   no    doubt.      Mr.    Roosevelt's 
speech  is  plain,  precise  Anglo-Saxon. 


Wftb  tbe  president 


He  is  never  profane.  He  never  em 
ploys  a  locution  unsuitable  to  the 
drawing-room.  And  yet  when  he  likes 
he  can  concentrate  more  imprecatory 
emphasis  in  a  polite  characterisation 
than  most  men  can  in  a  frenzied  curse. 

Upon  the  challenge  of  Mr.  Williams 
in  the  House  of  Representatives  on  the 
following  day,  the  Representative  gave 
a  sugar-coated  account  of  the  episode. 
His  story  was  that  ' '  the  President  had 
intimated  that  he  felt  that  the  commit 
tee  might  have  expressed  itself  in  a 
happier  manner !" 

A  land  owner  from  Australia  is 
introduced. 

"Let  me  see/'  says  the  The country 
President.  ' '  You  are  from  and  the  City- 
Northeast  Australia?  Would  that 
be  the  region  of  the"-— the  President 
names  an  Australian  river.  ' '  Farther 


72  H  Apical 


north  ?  Still  your  country  is  tolerably 
well  watered.  I  need  not  tell  you  that 
I  am  tremendously  interested  in  Aus 
tralia  —  and  in  New  Zealand  too. 
You  have  one  of  the  most  interest 
ing  of  the  newer  countries.  It  is 
tremendously  important  that  you 
should  avoid  one  pitfall,  however. 
It  is  most  necessary  that  something 
should  be  done  to  populate  your 
vast  stretches  of  country.  It  would 
be  most  unfortunate  if  your  cities 
were  to  continue  to  grow  out  of  all 
proportion  to  the  growth  of  your 
farm  lands  and  pasture  lands.  That 
always  indicates  an  unhealthy  con 
dition,  upon  which  permanent  pro 
sperity  may  not  hope  to  rest.  You 
do  well  to  be  proud  of  Melbourne, 
Sydney,  Adelaide,  Dalgety,  Bris 
bane,  and  Perth  —  but  what  are  you 


TKHftb  tbe  president  73 

doing  to  persuade  people  to  go  to 
your  lands?  We  are  very  proud  of 
Seattle,  Tacoma,  Spokane,  and 
Olympia."  (The  Australian  had 
been  introduced  by  a  Washington 
Senator;  in  the  meantime  three 
other  gentlemen  had  entered  the 
Cabinet  room.)  "But  it  won't  be 
any  advantage  to  Washington  to 
allow  them  to  grow  faster  than  the 
country  grows.  Why,  when  Ken 
tucky,  from  which  State  these  gentle 
men  come,  had  the  population  which 
the  State  of  Washington  has  to-day, 
it  did  n't  contain  within  its  borders 
a  single  town  of  4000  population." 
The  Kentuckians  had  learned  some 
thing  of  the  history  of  their  State, 
but  they  nodded  and  looked  at  each 
other,  gravely  assenting  to  the  cor 
rectness  of  the  President's  informa- 


74  H  Uspfcal 


tion.  He  was  rushing  on  into  a 
discussion  of  dry  farming  and  of  the 
various  types  of  water-traps  adapted 
to  a  region  such  as  North  Australia. 
"However,"  he  finished,  "if  you 
have,  as  you  say,  sixteen  inches  of 
rainfall,  you  are  pretty  well  fixed 
by  nature." 

Then  a  South  American  Consul  Gen 
eral  appears,  with  the  Republican 
From  leader  of  Virginia  and  an- 

SoUuthaliat°  other  Patriotic  Virginian. 
America.  The  Consul  General  wants 
a  diplomatic  appointment,  or  at  the 
least  wants  to  go  to  Japan  with  his 
present  rank.  The  other  Virginian 
has  his  eye  on  an  Assistant  Commis- 
sionership  for  the  Tokio  Exposition. 
The  plea  is  artful;  Virginia  has  only 
four  Federal  office-holders;  but  the  Re 
publican  party  there  is  united  and  pro- 


Mitb  tbe  ipresffcent  75 

gressive,  and  is  even  talking  about 
carrying  the  State.  There  is  some  frank 
discussion,  in  the  course  of  which  the 
President  tells  of  the  only  diplomatic 
appointment  that  is  open,  and  it  is 
really  promised  to  Indiana,  if  that  State 
has  the  man  for  it.  The  Virginia  leader 
is  a  very  young  man,  who  has  been 
gradually  recognised  in  place  of  his 
father.  The  President  tells  his  friends 
that  new  conditions  call  for  new 
methods,  and  that  young  men  are  bet 
ter  adapted  to  the  leadership  of  the 
South  to-day  than  men  of  another 
generation. 

The  President's  way  when  he  refuses 
an  application  varies  from  "I  doubt, 
Sir,  whether  your  friend  is  QUITE  the 
best  man  for  the  place,  from  the  infor 
mation  which  reaches  me"  to  "They 
tell  me  he  is  a  crook. " 


76  H  Tlypical 


Everybody  has  gone  but  one  quiet 

man  who  has  been  standing  near  the 

window  in  the  Cabinet  room. 

Troops  for 

Alaska  It  is  Governor  Hoggatt  of 
Alaska.  To  him  now  the 
President  goes.  "  Well,  Governor,  how 
is  Alaska  ?  Who  is  killing  whom  now  ?  '  ' 
The  President's  tone  is  jocular,  but  his 
face  grows  hard  as  flint  as  he  peruses  a 
5oo-word  telegram  which  the  Govern 
or  hands  him.  "  This  is  bad.  What 
savages!  I  suppose  you  want  the 
troops?"  There  has  been  a  desperate 
strike  on  at  the  famous  Treadwell  Mine 
in  Southeastern  Alaska.  Some  of  the 
1400  strikers,  the  telegram  relates, 
have  stolen  dynamite,  and  it  is  believed 
that  they  will  use  it.  The  President 
remembers  that  Fort  William  Henry 
Seward  is  only  a  few  hours'  distance 
from  Treadwell  by  steamer. 


"Cdttb  tbe  president  77 

The  President  leans  against  the  Cabi 
net  table,  and  then  sits  on  it,  ruminat 
ing,  rubbing  his  forehead,  looking  out 
the  window  at  the  opening  japonicas. 
"I  hate  to  see  our  troops  used  in  this 
way.  I  suppose  there  is  no  way  out." 
Governor  Hoggatt  assures  him  that  he 
knows  of  none.  The  Governor  says: 
"You  couldn't  get  together  in  all 
Alaska  ten  men  to  fight  this  crowd. 
Surely  the  Government  is  bound  to  pro 
tect  life  and  property  threatened  in  this 
way."  Then  he  goes  into  a  history  of 
the  Alaska  labour  troubles,  the  impor 
tation  of  the  Slav  miners,  the  danger  to 
all  business  enterprise  in  the  Territory 
if  order  is  not  maintained.  He  is  a  man 
with  a  quiet,  assured,  even  voice,  com 
pletely  master  of  every  fact,  every 
name,  and  every  date.  The  necessity  of 
military  action  would  seem  to  be  clear 


78  H  Apical 


enough,  but  the  President  is  extremely 
reluctant.  Every  particle  of  self-assert- 
iveness  has  vanished  from  his  bearing, 
his  words,  and  his  manner  of  speech. 
"It  is  bad  business  —  bad  busi 
ness.  I  do  want  to  be  sure  that 
every  resource  of  the  civil  power 
has  been  exhausted  before  an  appeal 
is  made  to  the  military  arm."  He 
sighs,  gets  up,  and  walks  across  the 
room  twice.  "  I  don't  see  why  these 
enterprises  should  ever  have  been 
begun  up  there  in  a  region  of  law 
lessness.  Well,  Governor,  go  over 
to  the  War  Department  and  tell 
them  from  me  that  in  case  they 
believe  it  absolutely  necessary  they 
may  send  troops  from  Fort  Seward. 
If  they  believe  there  is  no  other  way, 
mind.  You  believe  it  absolutely 
necessary,  Governor?'* 


tbe  president  79 


The  President  remains  silent  for  a 
moment  longer,  sitting  on  the  Cabinet 
table,  staring  out  of  the  window.  The 
Governor  of  Alaska  has  gone  to  carry 
the  President's  order  to  send  the  regu 
lars  to  the  Treadwell  Mine.  Spring  has 
renewed  its  attack  on  Washington  this 
morning,  and  the  White  House  trees 
and  boscages  are  bursting  out  in  tender 
greens.  Before  the  door  there  is  a  soli 
tary  policeman  engaged  in  upholding 
the  dignity  of  the  approach  to  the 
President  —  and  in  playing  with  a  squir 
rel  which  has  climbed  to  his  shoulders. 

Visitors  are  pressing  in  again.  The 
President  engages  in  a  long  and  serious 
discussion  with  Mr.  Milton  Railroad 
Purdy,  the  trust-breaking  **si^_ 
expert  of  the  Department  of  road  Men. 
Justice.  Mr.  Purdy  is  likely  to  be 
the  next  United  States  District  Judge 


8o  H  Usptcai  Dap 

of  Minnesota,  Judge  William  Lochren 
having  announced  his  intention  to  re 
sign.  Senator  Nelson  favours  Mr. 
Hale,  a  Minneapolis  lawyer,  but  he  is 
sixty-four  years  old,  and  the  President 
has  a  fondness  for  young  men. 

The  President  sees  Representative 
Hepburn  over  the  bill  he  has  introduced 
to  amend  the  Sherman  anti-trust  law. 
The  President  is  disappointed  at  the 
reference  of  this  bill  to  the  Judiciary 
Committee  of  the  House.  He  sees 
Senator  Burroughs  of  Michigan,  talks 
with  Senator  McCumber,  with  Congress 
men  Weeks,  Tirrell,  and  Gillett,  and 
Bennett  and  Edwards  of  Kentucky, 
and  the  Second  Assistant  Postmaster 
General. 

While  the  President  is  conferring 
with  the  expert  trust  prosecutor,  Mr. 
J.  J.  Hill  comes  in  and  takes  a  seat. 


TKHttb  tbe  president  81 


The  President  waves  his  hand  at  the 
railroad  magnate.  "See  you  in  just  a 
minute,  Mr.  Hill."  But  it  is  nearer 
fifteen  minutes.  "Here  is  a  man,"  he 
says  as  he  clasps  Mr.  Hill's  hand, 
"who  I  was  very  much  surprised  yes 
terday  to  learn  was  such  a  radical  that 
I  saw  myself  shrunken  into  a  timid 
weakling  of  a  conservative  of  the  mild 
est  type."  The  two  sit  with  legs 
curled  up  under  them  on  the  sofa  and 
shake  their  fingers  at  each  other's 
noses.  Mr.  Hill  is  not  an  optimist  just 
now. 

A  party  of  railroad  engineers  who  are 
in  Washington  conferring  with  South 
ern  railroads  about  reduction  of  wages 
is  seen  next.  The  President  wins  them 
at  once,  but  he  won't  commit  himself. 
"  I  will  do  what  I  can.  One  thing  you 
can  depend  on:  I  won't  say  I  will  do  a 


82  H  ^Epical  Bap 

thing  until  I  'm  sure  that  I  can  come 
pretty  near  doing  it." 

Then  there  is  an  interlude  of  friends 
paying  respects.  "I  AM  glad  to  see 
you."  "This  CERTAINLY  is  a  pleas 
ure."  "  It  was  MIGHTY  good  of  you  to 
come  and  see  me.  I  am  really  DEEPLY 
obliged  to  you."  "Now,  do  you  know 
that  NOTHING  could  be  greater  pleas 
ure  than  this?"  "By  George,  I  AM 
glad  to  see  you!"  "That's  fine. 
That  's  bully."  "I  'm  MIGHTY  glad 
to  have  a  chance  to  see  you."  "By 
George,  this  is  great!" 

One  of  those  whom  he  greets  is 
Senator  Stephenson  of  Wisconsin,  who 
A  Venerable  is  seventy-nine  years  old  and 

Senator  and    .  •  j  r  /> 

a  Youthful  1S  president  of  twenty-five 
Governor.  business  companies,  and  who 
works,  so  he  says,  from  seven  o'clock 
in  the  morning  until  nine  o'clock  at 


tbe  presifcent  83 


night.  All  the  same  he  doesn't  in 
terest  the  President  as  much  as  does 
George  L.  Sheldon,  Governor  of  Ne 
braska.  The  Governor  enjoyed  him 
self  so  much  yesterday  that  he  is  back 
again.  Governor  Sheldon  is  a  young 
chap,  with  a  still  younger  look,  six  feet 
tall  and  a  trifle  over-nourished,  with  a 
fine  head  of  hair  and  a  slight  stoop. 
You  can  see  that  he  was  the  favourite 
orator  of  his  class  at  college.  Beveridge 
looked  just  that  way  ten  years  ago. 
The  Governor  gazes  about  with  a  satis 
fied  sense.  He  is  in  the  presence  of  the 
paraphernalia  of  Presidential  power  —  • 
stranger  things  have  happened  than 
that  he  should  one  day  be  there  as 
master.  And  indeed  there  is  that 
chance.  If  Governor  Hughes  gets  the 
nomination  in  June,  nothing  would  be 
more  natural  than  that  Nebraska's 


84  H 


Governor  should  be  his  running  mate. 
But  Governor  Hughes  is  n't  going  to 
get  the  nomination,  and  Sheldon  is  for 
Taft.  It  would  be  a  thing  unusual  to 
have  both  candidates  from  the  West, 
but  Governor  Sheldon  believes  it  pos 
sible  to  lick  Bryan  in  his  own  State. 

The  President  plainly  likes  the  tall 
young  Governor.  Apparently  he  con 
siders  that,  as  Doctor  Johnson  said  of 
a  Scotchman,  much  may  be  made  of  a 
Nebraskan  orator  if  caught  young.  The 
scene  reminds  one  of  another,  which  the 
late  Jeremiah  Curtin  used  to  describe. 
He  visited  the  White  House  with  Gov 
ernor  Greenhalge  of  Massachusetts  in 
1891  —  Mr.  Harrison  was  President  then 
—  and  found  a  Civil  Service  Commis 
sioner  pacing  the  anteroom.  "That 
man,"  said  Greenhalge  to  Curtin, 
1  'looks  for  all  the  world  as  if  he  had 


Mitb  tbe  ipresifcent  85 


been  inspecting  the  White  House,  and, 
having  found  it  suitable,  has  resolved  to 
come   here  to  live   himself."    "Yes," 
replied  the  translator  of  Sienkiewicz, 
"  nothing  human  is  more  certain  than 
that  Theodore  Roosevelt  will  be  Presi 
dent."     Whatever  George  L.  Sheldon 
may  be,  he  will  never  be  a  Roosevelt, 
however.     He  will  never  talk  like  this: 
"That  was  a  GREAT   ride  I   had 
yesterday — simply   GREAT,   I     WISH 
you  had  been  with  me.     Took  two 
fences,  and  a  water  jump,  and    an 
embankment — well,    I    don't    know 
what  the  grade  was,  but  it  was  practi 
cally  perpendicular.  You  can  go  down 
and  look  at  it  if  you  want  to.     My 
horse    did   his   prettiest    yesterday. 
General  Bell  was  along.    No,  no  acci 
dents  yesterday.      I  have    had   my 
share,  though.    Let 's  see :  I ' ve  broken 


86  H  Apical  Dap 

my  arm,  and  my  rib,  and  my  nose, 
and  my  wrist — you  see  it 's  a  little 
out  of  kelter  yet — and  I  've  been 
knocked  senseless  at  polo,  and  been 
thrown — well,  I  don't  like  to  say 
how  many  times.  No  man  can 
strike  a  prairie  dog  town  without 
getting  into  trouble.  I  recollect 
one  fall  I  had  in  that  country.  I 
was  wound  up  in  my  horse  and  a 
steer  in  a  manner  I  sha'n't  forget  to 
my  dying  day,  and  was  thrown — I 
thought  at  the  time  it  was  about 
fifty  feet.  Governor,  I  DID  enjoy 
that  speech  of  yours;  all  but  the 
first  part.  That  was  a  clear  case 
of  misdirected  enthusiasm,  but 
the  part  about  Taft  was  ALL  RIGHT." 
The  President's  devotion  to  out-of- 
door  exercise  is,  of  course,  well  known. 
Two  afternoons  in  the  week,  as  a  rule, 


Mitb  tbe  prestfcent  87 

he  rides;  two  afternoons,  as  a  rule,  he 
spends  on  the  tennis  court.  Clad,  this 
season  of  the  year,  in  a  black  sweater, 
which  comes  off  when  the  Presidential 
temperature  rises,  with  a  hat  pulled 
over  his  eyes  when  he  plays  in  the  east 
court  against  the  sun,  when  in  the  west 
court  bare-headed,  with  Alford  W. 
Cooley  or  GifTord  Pinchot  as  a  partner, 
he  confronts  perhaps  most  frequently 
the  nimble  Ambassador  of  France, 
James  R.  Garfield,  Robert  Bacon,  or 
Herbert  Knox  Smith.  A  guest  is  al 
ways  particularly  welcome  at  the  White 
House  who  can  put  up  a  good  game  of 
tennis.  The  President's  vim  and  his 
agility  of  foot  and  wrist  testify  to  his 
excellent  form  to-day — the  result  of 
his  careful  habits. 

Two  days  a  week,  as  a  rule,  Mr.  Roose 
velt  goes  on  a  tramp,  most  frequently 


88  H  Topical 


along  the  Potomac.  It  is  whispered 
that  he  leads  some  of  his  companions  a 
pretty  chase  —  for  few  people  at  Wash 
ington  keep  themselves  in  training  as 
does  the  President.  The  other  day  he 
was  accompanied  by  Mr.  Richard  Kear- 
ton,  an  English  ornithologist  and  photo 
grapher  of  wild  birds,  and  the  excursion 
was  in  Rock  Creek  park,  through  the 
valley  and  up  and  down  the  cliffs. 
There  the  two  nature-lovers  watched 
the  flashing,  through  the  young  green 
of  spring-touched  boughs,  of  king 
fisher,  cardinal,  and  redwing,  robin, 
bluebird,  and  Carolina  wren,  but  lis 
tened  in  vain  for  the  note  of  the  mock 
ing-bird,  which  the  Englishman  had 
never  heard. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  is  the  first  President 
who  has  had  time  for  exercise  and 
play  —  and  one  reason  he  has  time  for 


Tlditb  tbe  president  89 

a  hundred  features  of  work  indoors 
which  no  other  President  ever  did  is 
because  he  takes  time  for  recreation 
out  of  doors. 


A  CABINET  DAY  AT  THE  WHITE 
HOUSE 

What  One  Man  can  Do  in  an  Hour — Listening  to 
Appeals  for  Pardon  and  for  Appointments, 
Army  and  Navy  Affairs,  Delegations,  and 
Resignations,  Righting  Private  Wrongs,  and 
Deciding  Public  Questions  in  a  Fraction  of  a 
Morning. 

FRIDAY  was  Cabinet  day,  but  the 
President  managed  to  attend  to  a  few 
small  matters:  He  considered  and  he 
declined  to  grant  a  pardon  in  the  case 
of  an  offender  from  Texas;  he  called 
the  Surgeon  General  of  the  Army  to 
take  under  special  consideration  the 
case  of  a  young  officer  turned  down 
because  he  was  declared  to  have, 
though  he  denied  it,  symptoms  of  tu 
berculosis;  he  made  the  final  arrange- 
90 


gg 

I  X 


O  - 

O  j= 
tr  =. 


K. 
ui  =  §: 

I    C,    O 


Cabinet  Bas  at  tbe  Wbite  Ibouse     91 

ments  for  sending  troops  to  the  seat  of 
trouble  in  Alaska;  he  gave  an  unen- 
couraging  hearing  to  a  proposition  from 
Oregon  (I  fancy  Mr.  Harriman's  small 
Italian  was  in  it) ;  he  considered  candi 
dates  for  the  position  of  United  States 
Attorney  for  the  Idaho  District — the 
seat  of  the  trouble  culminating  in 
the  murder  of  the  Governor  of  Idaho; 
he  accepted  the  resignation  of  the 
Controller  of  the  Currency,  bade  the 
retiring  incumbent  good-bye,  and  an 
nounced  his  successor;  he  received  dele 
gations  from  Tennessee  on  the  matter 
of  the  appointment  of  a  Federal  Judge 
for  the  Eastern  District;  he  dodged  a 
well-planned  coup  intended  to  draw 
him  again  on  the  third-term  question; 
he  gave  some  necessary  orders  for  the 
fleet,  now  on  the  greatest  maritime  ex 
pedition  in  history;  he  at  last  reached 


92  H  Cabinet  Das 

a  conclusion  as  to  the  delicate  and  im 
portant  subject  of  the  attitude  of  the 
Government  toward  the  Government  of 
Venezuela;  he  determined  the  Govern 
ment  attitude  on  the  Ambassadorial 
perplexity  surrounding  the  appoint 
ment  of  Mr.  Hill  to  the  Court  of  the 
German  Kaiser, — and  then  he  convened 
the  Cabinet. 

Senator  Frazier  of  Tennessee  early 
brought  in  a  delegation  of  railroad 
A  Tennessee  men-  The  President  was 
Delegation,  pleased.  "You  are  a  con 
ductor,  I  think,"  he  said  to  one  a 
trifle  the  superior  in  address.  "Now^ 
which  is  the  engineer  and  which  the 
fireman?  Ah,  yes.  I  am  an  honorary 
fireman  myself,"  he  said,  and  then  he 
mentioned  the  names  of  two  or  three 
locomotive  engineers,  John  Still  of 
Atlanta  being  one,  and  a  fireman  or 


Ht  tbe  Mbite  Douse  93 

two,  and    asked  his  visitors  if    they 
knew  them. 

"We  are  here,  Mr.  President,"  said 
the  spokesman,  "in  behalf  of  Foster  V. 
Brown  of  Chattanooga.  I  speak  in  be 
half  of  the  unanimous  sentiment  of  the 
railroad  men  of  Tennessee  in  declaring 
our  belief  that  he  is  the  man  for  the 
place."  And  so  on.  It  was  that  Fed 
eral  Judgeship.  The  President  heard 
them  through.  Then  he  said: 

"Gentlemen,  I  thank  you  for 
coming  to  see  me.  This  is  most 
important.  What  you  tell  me  is 
to  be  considered  very  seriously, 
very  seriously  indeed.  Of  course  I 
take  it  you  understand  that  no  plea 
on  behalf  of  your  friend,  or  of  any 
one  else,  would  have  any  weight 
with  me,  if  it  were  merely  on  the 
ground  that  the  appointment 


94  H  Cabinet 


would  please  any  particular  class. 
It  is  pleasing  to  me  to  know  that 
Mr.  Brown  is  liked  by  the  railroad 
men  of  Tennessee,  if  that  is  an  in 
dication  that  he  is  esteemed  also 
by  every  other  class  and  sort  and 
rank  of  men  there,  men  of  every 
other  trade  and  profession.  You 
don't  come  here  to  ask  me  to  ap 
point  Mr.  Brown  because  you 
think  he  would  be  favourable  to 
you."  The  foreman  of  the  dele 
gation  had  made  a  speech  not 
quite  of  the  most  discreet  sort. 

'  You  would  n't  dream  for  a  mo 
ment  of  hoping  that  I  would  do  a  thing 
^.  .  like  that;  you  would  n't 

Discussing  a  * 

Federal         want  me  to  do  a  thing  like 

that.     A  judge  who  would 

favour  his  friends  in  a  good  cause 

would  be  just  as  corrupt  a  judge  and 


Ht  tbe  TKHbite  "Douse  95 

would  work  the  same  harm  to  our 
institutions  as  a  judge  who  would 
favour  those  who  had  corrupted  him 
in  an  evil  cause.  The  thing  to  be  con 
sidered  about  the  man  in  whose  inter 
est  you  come  here  is  not  whether  he 
is  wanted  by  the  railroad  workingmen 
or  by  the  capitalists  or  by  the 
learned,  but  whether  he  is  an  hon 
est,  God-fearing,  upright  man,  with 
the  learning  and  poise  for  a  judge. 

"I  believe  I  have  said  somewhere 
that  it  would  be  desirable  if  our 
judges  could  be  drawn  more  directly 
from  the  ranks  of  men  in  the  activ 
ity  and  struggle  of  life.  This  is  an 
hour  when  the  academic  must  give 
way  to  the  wise  and  the  practical. 
There  is  always  perhaps  a  danger 
that  our  judges  should  grow  away 
from  the  people,  getting  out  of 


96  H  Cabinet 


knowledge  of  and  sympathy  with 
the  man  who  works  with  his  hands. 
That  would  be  most  unfortunate. 
But  it  would  not  be  anything  like 
so  unfortunate  as  it  would  be  to 
make  a  man  a  judge  simply  be 
cause  the  men  who  work  with  their 
hands  would  like  to  see  him  judge. 
No,  the  question  is,  Is  he  decent, 
honourable,  square,  and  able  ?  I  have 
heard  nothing  against  your  candi 
date,  except  that  his  health  is  not 
all  that  it  might  be.  How  about 
that?" 

The  Senator  from  Tennessee  assured 
the  President  that  Mr.  Brown's  health 
was  satisfactory.  As  the  delegation  de 
parted  Mr.  Frazier  lingered  a  moment. 
44  Boys,"  cried  the  President,  "  he  is 
trying  to  hand  me  another  man!  " 
An  influential  citizen  from  Vermont 


at  tbe  TKHbite  ibouse          97 

with  an  attractively  gowned  wife  was 
introduced  by  his  Congress-  A  Trap  Fails 
man.  The  Vermonter  had  to  Work. 
a  shot  ready;  his  little  speech  closed 
thus:  "Mr.  President,  is  it  just  and 
right  that  one  man  should  dictate 
who  shall  or  who  shall  not  be  Presi 
dent  ?"  His  face  shaped  to  symbo 
lise  righteous  indignation  at  the  bare 
thought,  the  Vermonter  paused  for  the 
President's  reply.  Singularly  enough, 
the  impetuous  Mr.  Roosevelt  would 
not  to  the  breach;  the  orator's  climax 
remained  uncapped.  Maybe  the  Presi 
dent  had  met  the  trick  before.  At  all 
events,  the  rhetorician  had  to  conclude 
himself.  "No,  Sir;  it  is  not.  Then  no 
one  man  can  be  permitted,  not  even 
yourself,  Mr.  President,  to  say  that 
Theodore  Roosevelt  shall  not  be  the 
next  President  of  the  United  States." 


98  H  Cabinet 


The  President's  expression  of  thanks 
for  the  call  was  made  to  the  wife. 

A  committee  from  New  York  City 
begging  the  President  to  make  an 
address  on  Memorial  Day  at  Grant's 
Tomb,  one  of  the  great  occasions  of  the 
patriotic  year,  was  disposed  of  in 
twenty  words.  "Can't,  gentlemen. 
Simply  can't.  I'll  write  to  you  mighty 
polite,  but  I  can't.  Go  ask  Taft."  A 
Congressman  with  this  delegation  (I 
believe  it  was  Calder  of  New  York) 
had  a  word  to  say  for  a  candidate  for 
Assistant  Appraiser  of  merchandise  at 
New  York,  but  the  President  had  an 
other  man  in  mind. 

The  Controller  of  the  Currency,  Wil 
liam  B.  Ridgely,  handed  the  President 
his  resignation,  and  bade  him  farewell. 
His  father-in-law,  Senator  Cullom,  and 
Senator  Hopkins  came  with  Mr.  Ridgely 


Bt  tbe  Tldbite  Douse  99 

to  ask  the  President  to  appoint  a 
Mr.  Smith  of  Illinois  to  the  succession. 
The  President  was  understood  to 
intimate  that  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  had  expressed  himself  very 
forcibly  about  this  appointment,  and 
he  regarded  it  as  vitally  necessary  that 
the  occupant  of  the  position  be  a  man 
in  perfect  sympathy  with  the  Secretary. 
Under  these  circumstances  the  Illinois 
Senators  declared  they  would  not  think 
of  pressing  the  candidacy  of  Mr.  Smith. 
Lawrence  O.  Murray  will  be  the  next 
Controller. 

At  10:58  the  Secretary  of  Commerce 
and  Labor  comes  in — Mr.  Straus.  Sec 
retary  Garfield  is  in  the  room  The  cabinet 
as  the  chime  finishes  the  Assembks. 
fourth  quarter.  A  distinguished-look 
ing  individual  who  has  come  in  by  the 
talisman  of  Baron  Kaneko's  name,  and 


ioo  Cabinet  H)as  at  tbe  TKUbfte  Ibouse 

who  begins  by  telling  the  President  that 
he  is  not  a  Jap,  although  he  has  received 
two  orders  from  the  Emperor,  wants  to 
be  an  Assistant  Commissioner  for  the 
Tokio  Fair,  but  gets  no  encourage 
ment.  Francis  B.  Loomis,  ex- Assistant 
Secretary  of  State,  is  to  be  Commis 
sioner.  Taft  stalks  in  and  takes  his 
stand  behind  the  chair  at  the  right  of 
the  President's.  Secretaries  Root,  Cor- 
telyou,Metcalf,  and  Wilson,  and  Messrs. 
Meyer  and  Bonaparte,  having  come  in 
something  like  that  order,  are  all  in 
place.  Venezuela,  the  Berlin  Embassy 
question,  the  Alaska  situation,  the  re 
vision  of  the  anti-trust  law,  are  on  the 
tapis.  It  is  just  five  minutes  after  the 
hour  when  the  President  takes  his  seat 
at  the  head  of  the  council  table. 


GIVING  AUDIENCES  TO  TWO 
HUNDRED 

A  Throng  of  Congressmen  and  Officials,  with  a 
Bewildering  Variety  of  Concerns — Mr.  Roose 
velt  Wants  to  Hunt  Lions  in  Africa,  but  Mean 
while  Urges  Taft  upon  All  Influential  Callers, 
and  Refuses  to  Talk  with  Third-Term  Bourne. 

SATURDAY  is  a  rainy  day — a  "grow 
ing  day,"  the  farmers  would  call  it; 
oppressive,  "muggy,"  in  the  Yankee 
vernacular.  The  weather  is  on  every 
body's  nerves.  Yesterday  there  was  a 
prostration  from  the  heat,  and  a 
Congressman  shot  a  negro  to  death 
and  wounded  a  white  man.  To-day  it 
is  worse.  Nobody  is  feeling  himself. 
However,  the  President  saw  over  two 
hundred  people  between  9:30  and  2:30, 
among  the  number  being  Senator 


101 


102  <Bix>tng  Hufciences 

Lodge,  Senator  Beveridge,  Senator 
Borah,  Senator  Warner,  Senator  Over 
man,  Senator  Bourne,  Mr.  Justice  Har- 
lan,  ex-Governor  Allen  of  Porto  Rico, 
the  Government  counsel  of  the  Inter- 
State  Commerce  Commission,  Secretary 
Taft,  Assistant  Secretary  of  State 
Bacon,  seventeen  Congressmen,  the 
United  States  Marshal  of  Mississippi, 
two  newspaper  correspondents,  "Dry 
Dollar"  Sullivan  of  New  York,  a 
Rough  Rider,  and  dozens  of  others 
who  have  left  no  record  of  distinct  per 
sonality  upon  my  mind. 

A  brace  of  young  lads  were  among 
those  waiting  in  the  Cabinet  room 
before  the  doors  were  opened.  They 
sat  on  a  window  ledge  half  an  hour, 
their  eyes  dancing  like  a  parcel  of  mice, 
till  the  great  man  of  their  dreams  came 
in.  He  worked  around  to  them  in  short 


ZTo  Uwo  lDun&re&  103 

order;  they  had  plenty  to  say,  and 
didn't  want  to  go  any  more  than  he 
wanted  them  to  go. 

A  Congressman  from  Northern  New 
York  had  brought  in  several  friends. 
The  President  detained  them  several 
minutes.  "From  up  the  State?  By 
George,  I  am  glad  to  see  you!  That 's 
really  my  true  home  up  there.  It  was 
you  people  who  gave  me  my  chance. 
In  a  sense  I  owe  everything  to  you.'* 

The  President  does  not  say 
"De-light-ed." 

Then  there  was  a  man  who  had  lately 
come  from  Africa,  where  he  had  done 
some  lion  shooting.  "By  Planning  a 
George,  you  are  the  man  Lion  Hunt, 
whom  I  have  got  to  see!  You  have 
been  shooting  lions  in  Africa.  Come, 
now;  tell  me  all  about  it.  I  am  not 
going  to  let  you  go  until  I  have  heard 


104  <3tx>in0  Hufciences 

the  whole  story.  I  am  going  down 
there  the  minute  I  get  through  with 
this!"  —  and  the  President  dragged 
him  off  to  the  sofa,  where  the  two  sat 
half  an  hour  discussing  lion  hunting. 
To  everybody  the  President  talks 
Taft.  To  ex-Governor  Allen  he  says : 

"Taft    is   an    ideal   man.      He 's 
square.     He  wouldn't  lend  himself 
to    anything    not     absolutely    ap 
proved   by   his   conscience   for   the 
sake    of    the    Presidency.      That 's 
what  I  like  about  Taft/' 
The  President  grins  when  the  ex-Gov 
ernor    tells    him    that    he    found    the 
Porto  Ricans  easy  people  to  deal  with. 
"Of    course,"    laughs    the    President, 
"there  is  less  trouble  in  the  island  than 
there    is    in    one    vigorous    American 
town." 

It  is  a  pleasing  sight  to  see  the  ven- 


{Two  twufcrefc  105 


erable  Justice  Harlan  and  the  young 
President.  It  is  said  the  senior  Jus 
tice  is  ready  to  resign.  He  has  con 
ceived  such  a  regard  for  Mr.  Roosevelt 
that  it  may  be  he  wants  him  to  appoint 
his  successor.  Whether  or  not  this  is 
the  case,  the  interchange  of  ideas 
between  the  Judge,  great-framed  but 
stooped  and  hoary  in  the  service  of  his 
country's  constitutional  interpretation, 
and  the  forceful  personality  who  is 
accused  of  tearing  the  Constitution  to 
tatters,  is  eager  and,  it  would  seem, 
affectionate. 

"Oh!  I  am  eager  to  have  a  good 
talk  with  the  reformer  and  the  —  the  — 
ornithologist,"  cries  the  President,  as 
Judge  Kohlsaat  and  Prof.  Clark  are 
ushered  in.  But  it  is  Mr.  Glasgow, 
counsel  for  the  Inter-State  Commerce 
Commision,  whom  he  has  sit  down 


106  Oiv>tn0  Bufciences 

with  him,  and  the  two  are  deep  in 
legal  papers  before  the  scientist  and 
the  idealist  have  found  seats. 

The  President  addresses  Timothy 
Sullivan  gravely  as  " Senator"  before 
Aniiiustri-  the  group  in  the  Cabinet 
ous  New  room,  but  when  the  eminent 

Yorker  in 

Audience.  Tammany  statesman  is  de 
parting  the  President  thinks  of  a  prac 
tical  joke  (there  may  have  been  a  lit 
tle  more  to  it  than  that),  and  calls 
out:  "Tim!  Oh,  Tim;  wait  a  minute! 
I  want  you  to  see  a  man  who  needs 
watching,  a  most  unscrupulous  person  " 
— and  sends  for  Assistant  Attorney 
General  Cooley,  who  comes  in  from 
the  big  mansard  pile  across  the  street, 
breathless,  and  sits  down  on  the  sofa 
with  "Big  Tim,"  while  the  President 
chuckles  for  five  minutes  at  the  scene. 
Mr.  Cooley,  a  rather  elegant  person, 


ZTo  Uwo  twn&refc  107 

and  an  idealist  in  politics,  gets  along 
very  well  with  "Dry  Dollar"  Sullivan 
nevertheless.  I  don't  know  what  they 
talked  about. 

Senator  Owen  of  Oklahoma  is  an 
Indian,  and  he  is  a  new  man  in  the 
Senate,  but  he  is  the  most  forcible  man 
with  the  most  vigorous  manner  in 
tete-a-tete  who  has  sat  down  with  the 
President  during  the  week. 

Some  pretty  big  things  are  going  on, 
and  the  heads  of  two  Washington 
newspaper  bureaus  have  been  admitted. 
The  Secretary  of  War  comes  in  and 
stands  waiting  until  the  President  has 
given  them  two  minutes  apiece.  The 
President  won't  allow  the  correspond 
ents  to  quote  him,  but  tells  them  frank 
ly  his  position  on  the  new  anti-trust 
bill  now  before  the  Congress.  He  is  in 
favour  of  it  in  principle,  but  he  isn't 


io8  Giving  Hufciences 


sure  about  every  provision  it  contains. 
He  won't  say  he  has  not  seen  it,  but  he 
can't  pretend  to  have  had  time  to 
examine  it.  His  position  was  made 
plain  in  his  message.  If  the  bill  con 
forms  to  that,  he  is  for  it.  One  thing 
ought  to  be  made  clear:  he  won't 
stand  for  any  legalisation  of  the  boy 
cott.  Please  make  that  clear.  They  had 
asked  him  not  to  use  the  word  "  boy 
cott"  at  any  rate.  Therefore  he  is 
going  to  use  the  word  "boycott."  He 
won't  stand  for  it  under  that  or  any 
other  old  name.  There  wasn't  to  be 
any  misunderstanding  about  that,  any 
possibility  of  a  charge  of  double  deal 
ing.  He  couldn't  interfere  in  Con 
gress  to  the  extent  of  protesting 
against  the  reference  of  the  bill  to 
any  particular  committee.  He  pro 
bably  could  say  that  it  was  time  it 


1bun&re&  109 


came  out  of  committee  and  was  acted 
on. 

Secretary  Taft   is  greeted    ffigh  Office 

affectionately   as  "  Big  Bill/'    andFamiliar 

A  little  friend  of  mine  was 
very  much  scandalised  the  other  day 
when  I  read  aloud  some  autobiograph 
ical  details  of  her  childhood  told 
by  Queen  Victoria  in  her  Letters,  just 
published.  When  the  future  Queen  of 
England  went  to  Windsor  to  see 
George  IV.,  that  monarch  exclaimed, 
"Give  us  your  paw!"  A  little  later, 
as  the  King  passed  by  with  the  Duch 
ess  of  Gloucester  in  a  phaeton,  the 
little  Princess  caught  his  eye,  and 
he  cried,  "  Pop  her  in!"  My  young 
friend  thought  this  most  improper 
language  for  royalty.  But  the  Queen's 
memoirs  declare,  in  the  very  sen 
tence  following  her  quotation  of  the 


no  Givin    Hufciences 


Georgian  salute,  that  the  King  was  a 
man  of  extreme  dignity  and  charm  of 
manner.  Don't  imagine  because  the 
President  calls  people  "  Bill"  or  "  Tim," 
and  employs  sometimes  very  homely 
English,  that  any  one  undertakes  famili 
arity  toward  him. 

Senator  Bourne  of  Oregon  has  been 
in  again  to-day,  and  finds  it  difficult 
to  get  the  President's  eye.  While  he 
is  waiting,  Representative  Madden  wins 
the  President's  sympathy  for  a  bill 
appropriating  $100,000  for  the  preser 
vation  of  the  cabin  in  which  Lincoln  was 
born.  Half  a  dozen  other  callers  are 
disposed  of.  Senator  Bourne  at  last 
gets  a  few  words.  "  Mr.  Bonaparte  will 
see  you,  Senator.  Yes,  I  have  talked, 
with  him.  See  him  for  yourself  .  When? 
Very  soon,  I  should  think.  In  the  next 
day  or  two.  He  was  very  reluctant 


ft  wo  Ibun&refc 


about  it.  I  doubt  if  he  is  willing.  But 
he  will  talk  with  you."  And  the  Sen 
ator  from  Oregon  is  pulled  along  by 
means  of  a  handshake,  and  the  next 
in  line  takes  his  place. 

To  one  group  of  legislators  the  Presi 
dent  speaks  very  forcibly  on  the  neces 
sity  of  repressing  anarchism      A  Warn 
in  this  country.     Defending         ing  for 

.,  .  -       r          -  .  Anarchists. 

his  order  for  the  suppression 
of  the  anarchist  journal,  La  Question 
Sociale,  Mr.  Roosevelt  says  with  im 
mense  energy  :  '  *  When  —  people  —  come 
—to  —  the  —  United  —  States  —  they  've— 
got  —  to  —  BEHAVE  —  United  —  States  !  " 


AN    ESTIMATE    OF    MR.    ROOSE 
VELT 

The  Marvel  of  His  Physical  Energy,  Nimbleness  of 
Attention,  Power  of  Concentration,  and  Volume 
of  Information — His  Clairvoyant  Understand 
ing  of  the  Average  Man — His  Lack  of  Philo 
sophical  or  Poetic  Sympathy. 

HERE  may  be  given,  of  course,  but 
glimpses  of  the  kaleidoscopic  scenes 
enacting  daily  in  the  White  House. 
These  may  serve,  however,  to  give  an 
idea  of  the  manner  in  which  the  busi 
ness  of  the  Government  is  transacted 
and  of  the  personality  of  the  man  who 
directs  its  transaction.  So  great  is 
the  natural  public  interest  in  this  man, 
so  unfounded  have  been  some  per 
sonal  criticisms  of  him  widely  dissem 
inated  by  the  less  scrupulous  of  his 


112 


Bn  Estimate  ot  /IDr,  1Rooset>elt  113 

opponents,  and  in  some  particulars  so 
incomplete  has  been  the  popular  con 
ception  of  his  character,  that  it  may  be 
worth  while  to  recapitulate  here  the 
impression  which  I  formed  of  it  while 
observing  him  as  the  centre  of  these 
scenes  and  many  more.  Any  one  who 
has  read  thus  far  may  be  depended 
upon  to  pardon  the  personal  statement 
that  the  author  has  never  been  a  par 
tisan  of  Mr.  Roosevelt.  Besides  a  dis 
position  to  look  with  some  contempt 
upon  the  Life  Strenuous,  the  particular 
incarnation  of  the  spirit  of  eager  ac 
tion  exhibited  in  the  person  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt  had  never  commended  itself 
to  him  as  particularly  admirable.  He 
did  not  go  to  scoff,  however;  neither 
did  he  exactly  remain  to  pray.  He 
came  away  with  an  experience,  how 
ever,  which  it  may  be  to  edification 


H4  Hn  Estimate  of 

thus  to  relate.  A  week's  close  and  con 
stant  observation  of  a  man  known  but 
casually  and  publicly  might  reasonably 
be  expected  to  modify  a  judgment.  In 
the  present  case  it  wrought  something 
very  like  a  change  of  heart.  The  tes 
timony  is  that  of  one  whose  name,  of 
course,  is  of  not  the  slightest  conse 
quence,  and  yet  what  any  man,  and  es 
pecially  one  prejudiced  against  rather 
than  in  favour  of  Mr.  Roosevelt,  ob 
served  during  rather  an  unusual  oppor 
tunity,  must  be  of  some  weight  as  a 
contribution  toward  a  final  estimate  of 
the  President. 

He  is,  first  of  all,  a  physical  marvel. 
He  radiates  energy  as  the  sun  radiates 
Mr.  Roose-  light  and  heat,  and  he  does 
veit  as  ft  apparently  without  losing 

Animated 

Radium.  a  particle  of  his  own  energy. 
It  is  not  merely  remarkable,  it  is  a  sim- 


iRoosevelt  us 


pie  miracle,  that  this  man  can  keep  up 
day  after  day  —  it  is  a  sufficient  miracle 
that  he  can  exhibit  for  one  day  —  the 
power  which  emanates  from  him  like 
energy  from  a  dynamo.  Once  we  all 
believed  in  a  beautiful  law  known  as 
that  of  the  conservation  of  energy.  No 
force,  so  went  the  dream,  was  lost,  It 
only  was  transformed;  it  underwent 
metamorphosis;  the  sum  of  energy  in 
the  universe  was  always  the  same.  It 
was  the  discovery  of  radium  and  the 
radioactive  susbtances  which  wrought 
the  discomfiture  of  that  law.  It  is  Mr. 
Roosevelt  who  discredits  it  entirely. 
He  never  knows  that  virtue  has  gone 
out  of  him.  He  radiates  from  morning 
until  night,  and  he  is  nevertheless 
always  radiant. 

One  despairs  of  giving  a  conception 
of  the  constancy  and  force  of  the  stream 


n6  Hn  Estimate  of 

of  corpuscular  personality  given  off  by 
the  President.  It  strikes  the  visitor 
directly  the  door  of  the  Cabinet  room 
closes  behind  him.  It  begins  to  play  on 
his  mind,  his  body,  to  accelerate  his 
blood-current,  and  to  set  his  nerves 
tingling  and  his  skin  aglow,  as  the  Bec- 
querel  rays  affect  a  sensitive  screen. 
It  is  a  healthy,  pleasant  influence, 
warming  and  awakening.  It  scatters 
chill  and  embarrassment;  it  restores 
equilibrium  broken  by  the  excitement 
of  the  prospective  interview  with  a 
personage.  I  have  once  or  twice  re 
marked  that  young  lads  brought  into 
the  President's  presence,  after  a  clasp 
of  his  hand  and  a  look  stolen  at  his 
face,  lift  their  heads  and  begin  to  talk 
fearlessly,  to  be  dragged  off  reluctantly, 
waving  their  hands  at  their  big  friend. 
Repeatedly  it  was  noticeable  that  the 


IRoosevelt  117 


embarrassed  spokesman  of  a  delega 
tion,  stopping  confused  in  his  prepared 
speech,  grinned  back  at  the  President's 
sympathetic  laugh  and  began  to  tell 
his  story  simply  and  well.  It  is  hard 
to  make  a  set  speech  to  the  President- 
easy  to  talk  to  him  straight  away  and 
from  the  heart;  he  draws  it  out  of  you; 
he  bombards  you  with  ever-flowing 
electrons  of  his  energy  and  his  per 
sonality. 

Most  callers  at  the  White  House  are 
there  for  the  pupose  of  bringing  some 
thing  away.  The  daily  pro-  Ho  He 
cession  might  be  regarded  as  Spoils  the 

.  ..  Egyptians. 

a  constant  raid  upon  the 
Presidential  treasury  of  favours.  Few 
of  the  raiders,  it  must  be  confessed,  get 
away  with  much.  Now,  it  takes  energy 
to  resist  raiders.  Mr.  Roosevelt  not 
only  resists  them  and  saves  most  of 


us  Hn  ^Estimate  ot 

his  possession  from  becoming  their 
prey,  but  he  manages  to  dispossess 
them  of  what  little  they  have  already 
and  makes  them  ashamed  of  themselves 
for  not  having  brought  in  more.  The 
President's  room  is  a  place  which  has 
seen  much  spoiling  of  the  Egyptians. 
The  President  likes  to  give,  and  he 
does  give,  but  no  man  with  a  greater 
genius  for  acquisition,  the  acquisition 
of  information,  ever  lived.  He  has  an 
infinite  passion  for  facts;  an  insatiable 
thirst  for  information;  he  lays  violent 
hands  on  any  detail  the  existence  of 
which  he  gets  wind  of.  Every  visitor 
pays  him  tribute.  The  President  gives 
the  visitor — possibly  he  gives  him  what 
he  came  for;  if  it  be  possible  he  does— 
but  at  all  events  he  gives  him  a  wel 
come,  the  sense  that  he  has  done  well 
to  come,  and  then  he  pumps  him  dry 


MAJOR    LOEFFLER 

The  Doorkeeper 

From  a  photograph  by  Harris  &  Ewing 


.  1Rooset>elt  119 


and  sends  him  forth  fulfilled  of  the 
President's  own  ideas,  own  opinions, 
and  enthusiasm. 

To  watch  this  process  going  on  hour 
after  hour,  day  after  day,  gives  one  a 
sense  of  energy  which  he  Mn  R00se. 
had  never  suspected  one  hu-  veitnotoniy 

Temperate, 

man    body    could    contain.  but 

Never  does  the  President  Abstemious- 
appear  to  meet  a  personality  than 
which  he  is  not  the  stronger;  an  idea 
to  which  he  is  a  stranger;  a  situation 
which  disconcerts  him.  He  is  always 
master.  He  takes  what  he  pleases, 
gives  what  he  likes,  and  does  his  will 
upon  all  alike.  Mr.  Roosevelt  never 
tires;  the  flow  of  his  power  does  not 
fluctuate.  There  is  never  weariness 
on  his  brow  nor,  apparently,  languor 
in  his  heart.  To  ennui  he  is  a  stranger 
—  would  be  were  he  the  humblest  man 


120  Hn  Estimate  of 

in  the  land,  tied  down  to  its  most  com 
monplace  labour.  He  is  gifted  with 
an  eagerness  of  mind  and  a  virility  of 
body  that  would  find  excitation  in  any 
situation.  I  have  watched  the  scien 
tists  at  the  Wood's  Hole  biological 
laboratory  conduct  investigations  of 
fatigue;  they  measured  by  delicate 
machines  the  physical  results  of  the 
wagging  of  a  finger  until  it  could  wag 
no  more;  they  observed  the  chemical 
changes  that  accompanied  the  beating 
of  a  turtle's  heart.  Mr.  Roosevelt's 
most  violent  exertions  would  have 
given  them  no  tangible  results.  It  is 
to  be  presumed  that  catabolism  ensues, 
but  no  evidence  of  it  ever  appears. 
The  President  ends  the  day  as  fresh 
as  he  began  it.  The  wonder  increases 
in  view  of  the  fact  that  he  eats  little. 
The  pleasures  of  the  table  appeal  to 


*  IRoosevelt  121 


him  not  at  all;  he  is  notably  abstemious 
in  food  and  drink.  Virility,  vigor,  vim, 
abound  in  him  as  in  no  man  he  meets, 
and  their  utmost  exercise  only  increases 
the  store.  The  President  is  a  living 
illustration  of  the  possibility  of  the 
miracle  of  the  widow's  cruse.  He 
is  a  man  of  really  phenomenal  physical 
power,  a  fountain  of  perennial  energy, 
a  dynamic  marvel. 

It  is  my  belief  that  a  large  part  of 
the  explanation  of  Mr.  Roosevelt  lies  in 
this  matter  of  his  physical  constitution. 
To  what  degree  this  is  a  gift  of  nature 
and  to  what  degree  an  acquirement  I 
do  not  know.  His  remarkable  control 
of  his  energy,  however,  is  certainly  his 
acquisition.  For  the  second  striking 
fact  about  Mr.  Roosevelt  is  this:  That 
his  dynamic  outflow,  inexhaustible  as 
it  appears  to  be,  is  yet  directed  with  the 


122  Hn  ^Estimate  of 

strictest  economy.  I  mean  to  say  that 
not  a  particle  of  his  energy  is  wasted. 
At  every  moment  it  is  brought  to  bear 
in  full  current  upon  the  particular 
object  of  the  moment.  This  is  what  I 
mean: 

The  President  is  able  to  concentrate 
his  entire  attention    on    the    subject 

Power  of  in  nand>  whether  it  be  for 
Concentra-  an  hour  or  for  thirty  seconds, 
and  then  instantly  to  transfer 
it,  still  entirely  concentrated,  to  another 
subject.  Let  me  say  that  there  is  no 
subtlety  in  my  observations,  in  my 
analysis.  These  are  not  the  conclu 
sions  of  a  mental  expert;  they  are 
not  ingenious  revelations  of  obscure 
phenomena  or  processes — they  are  sim 
ple  statements  of  facts  apparent  to 
anybody  who  has  the  opportunity  of 
seeing  the  President  for  a  few  hours— 


IRoosepelt  123 


statements  of  facts  not  only  apparent, 
but  commanding.  If  the  President's 
energy  is  phenomenal  —  and  the  whole 
world  knows  that  it  is  —  so  is  the 
mobility  of  his  energy  ;  so  is  the  nimble- 
ness  of  his  mind.  Swiftly  and  easily 
he  passes  from  one  thing  to  another 
totally  disconnected  with  it.  He  flies 
from  an  affair  of  state  to  a  hunting 
reminiscence  ;  from  that  to  an  abstract 
ethical  question;  then  to  a  literary  or 
a  historical  subject;  he  settles  a  point 
in  an  army  reorganisation  plan;  the 
next  second  he  is  talking  earnestly  to 
a  visitor  on  the  Lake  Superior  white- 
fish,  the  taste  of  its  flesh  and  the  articu 
lation  of  its  skeleton  as  compared 
with  the  shad;  in  another  second  or 
two  he  is  urging  the  necessity  of  arm 
ing  for  the  preservation  of  peace,  and 
quoting  Erasmus  ;  then  he  takes  up  the 


i24  an  Estimate  of 

case  of  a  suspected  violation  of  the 
Sherman  law,  and  is  at  the  heart  of  it 
in  a  minute ;  then  he  listens  to  the  tale 
of  a  Southern  politician  and  gives  him 
rapid  instruction;  turns  to  the  intrica 
cies  of  the  Venezuela  imbroglio,  with 
the  mass  of  details  of  a  long  story 
which  everybody  else  has  forgotten  at 
his  ringer  tips;  stops  a  moment  to  tell 
a  naval  aid  the  depth  and  capacity  of 
the  harbour  of  Auckland;  is  instantly 
intent  on  the  matter  of  his  great  and 
good  friend  of  the  Caribbean ;  takes  up 
a  few  candidacies  for  appointments, 
one  by  one;  recalls  with  great  gusto 
the  story  of  an  adventure  on  horse 
back;  greets  a  delegation;  discusses 
with  a  Cabinet  secretary  a  recommen 
dation  he  is  thinking  of  sending  to 
Congress.  All  this  within  half  an  hour. 
Each  subject  gets  full  attention  when 


/IDr,  IRoosevelt  125 

it  is  up;  there  is  never  any  hurrying 
away  from  it,  but  there  is  no  loitering 
over  it. 

The  White  House  atmosphere  is 
charged  with  energy,  but  there  is  no 
sense  of  haste.  I  think  no 

Mobility  of 

visitor  ever  leaves  with  a  Attention, 
feeling  that  he  has  not  had  ample 
time.  There  is  plenty  of  time  for 
everything,  but  every  moment  of  time 
is  used.  Plenty  of  leisure  even  to  stop 
and  to  tell  a  story,  or  hear  one,  but 
not  a  moment  without  something  doing. 
I  cannot  imagine  the  President  replying 
as  Dionysius  the  Elder  replied  when 
asked  when  he  would  be  at  leisure, 
"God  forbid  that  it  should  ever  befall 
me."  He  might  well,  however,  make 
the  remark  which  Plutarch  credits,  I 
think  it  is  to  Epaminondas,  "  How  came 
he  to  have  so  much  leisure  as  to  die, 


326  Hn  Estimate  ot 

when  there  was  so  much  stirring  ? ' '  Mr. 
Loeb  or  an  assistant  secretary  slips  in 
now  and  then  with  a  matter  which 
can  be  disposed  of  by  a  word  or  by  a 
stroke  of  the  pen.  The  amount  of 
routine  business  disposed  of  thus  casu 
ally  by  the  President  during  the  day 
is  enormous.  But  there  is  nothing 
casual  in  the  President's  treatment  of 
the  subjects  to  which  he  really  addresses 
himself.  It  may  be  only  one  minute 
or  two,  but  it  is  not  an  animadversion 
— it  is  entirely  concentrated  consider 
ation.  The  President's  power  of  atten 
tion  is  flexible,  plastic,  fluid. 

Furthermore,  it  is  not   a 

Sincerity  of 

His  Sympa-  transfer  of  attention  only 
which  the  President  achieves. 
It  is  a  transference  of  interest  and  of 
sympathy.  He  enters  into  the  new 
subject  with  his  whole  being.  His 


flbr,  1Roo8et>elt  127 

manner  changes;  his  pose  alters;  his 
language  takes  new  colour.  One  could 
almost  guess  the  subject  under  debate 
by  the  President's  attitude,  look,  and 
tone  of  voice.  With  a  boy  he  is  a  boy ; 
with  a  Senator,  a  statesman;  with  a 
politician,  a  politician;  with  a  diplo 
matist,  a  ruler;  with  a  bunch  of  cattle 
men,  a  ranchero;  with  a  family,  a 
father.  I  might  illustrate  this  endlessly, 
but  this  article  already  grows  too  long. 
The  best  summing  up  of  this  peculiarly 
vivid  sympathy  of  Mr.  Roosevelt's  has 
been  made  by  one  who  has  seen  him  in 
many  situations:  "When  he  is  at  a 
funeral,  he  acts  like  the  corpse;  and 
when  he  is  at  a  wedding,  everybody 
takes  him  for  the  bride." 

That  is  it  precisely;  the  President 
enters  into  every  situation  with  all 
his  sympathy,  all  his  heart;  and  his 


128  Hn  Estimate  of 

sympathy  is  catholic  in  the  extreme. 
He  has  himself  experienced  many  sides 
of  life,  and  he  has  mingled  freely  with 
men  and  women  who  have  drawn  him 
in  imagination  into  many  more.  His 
human  sympathy  is  as  wide  as  was 
that  of  Terence.  It  is  altogether  im 
possible,  for  one  who  observes  the  man 
ner  in  which  day  after  day  he  meets 
men  of  the  most  diverse  fortunes, 
occupations,  and  tastes,  to  put  down  the 
President's  attention  to  them  to  any 
thing  but  sincere  interest.  One  is  not 
on  his  oath  when  he  greets  a  caller, 
any  more  than  when  he  is  composing 
an  epitaph.  Fools,  babblers,  and  bores 
come  to  the  White  House.  They  are 
swiftly  dealt  with.  But  as  a  rule  the 
President  is  genuinely  glad  to  see  his 
visitors.  He  would  be  a  most  unhappy 
man  in  seclusion.  When  he  is  alone 


"Roosevelt  129 


he  falls  back  upon  the  companionship 
of  an  author  —  though  I  daresay  he  feels 
the  disadvantage  of  not  being  able  to 
talk  back  to  him.  The  President  is  the 
omnivorous  reader,  pulling  a  book  from 
his  pocket  when  he  has  a  moment 
unoccupied,  and  culling  its  ideas  with 
the  swiftness  of  a  trained  reviewer. 
Mr.  John  Burroughs,  than  whom  no 
man  has  a  juster  knowledge  of  the 
President's  character,  dwells  with 
amazement  on  this  faculty. 

His  knowledge  of  standard  literature 
is  considerable;  of  contemporary  writ 
ing,  phenomenal.  He  has 

Limitations 

made  his  own  the  litera-  of  His  Tem- 
ture  of  several  fields  of  his 
tory,  and  is  more  or  less  an  authority 
on  more  subjects  than  American  zo 
ology  and  Irish  mythology.  But  what 
I  particularly  noticed  was  his  wide 


130  Hn  Estimate  of 

familiarity  with  the  latest  books  and 
magazine  literature — my  own  particu 
lar  concern.  In  his  reading  the  Presi 
dent  exhibits  that  breadth  of  interest 
and  sympathy  which  is  observable  in 
his  dealings  with  his  visitors.  Life  and 
the  world  in  every  one  of  innumerable 
phases,  the  multitudinous  deeds  of 
men,  their  thoughts  and  ways  attract 
him  with  indescribable  fascination; 
the  physical  facts  concerning  the  hab 
itat  of  man  teem  for  him  with  vital 
importance.  I  should  not  imagine  that 
his  mind  often  enters  the  worlds  of 
poetry  or  romance.  He  is  allured 
rather  by  what  is  tangible.  After  a 
fashion,  he  respects  sentiment — but  the 
sentiments  he  indulges  are  those  com 
mon  to  most  men.  He  is  not  consti 
tuted  to  originate  or  to  respond  easily 
to  unusual  or  subtle  sentiments.  The 


1Roosex>elt  131 


niceties  of  speculation  or  analysis  would 
be  likely  to  annoy  him.  Of  robust 
moral  fibre,  ethical  refinements  make 
little  appeal  to  him.  It  does  not  occur 
to  him  that  man  has  no  right  to  kill 
beasts  for  pleasure.  He  is  not  a  con 
templative  man;  he  abstracts  the  im 
mediate  practical  significance  from  a 
fact,  but  he  does  not  pursue  it  and 
investigate  its  relationships  for  the 
purpose  of  any  philosophy.  He  lives 
in  his  front  rooms.  Origins  and  ulti 
mate  conclusions  interest  him  little. 
The  world  questions  do  not  knock  at 
his  doors.  Dreams  do  not  nest  in  his 
heart.  He  requires  only  a  basis  upon 
which  to  act.  He  is  a  President,  not  a 
philosopher.  The  native  hue  of  reso 
lution  is  not  in  Mr.  Roosevelt  sicklied 
o'er  with  the  pale  cast  of  thought;  nor 
do  enterprises  of  great  pith  and  mo- 


132  Hn  Estimate  of 


ment,  their  currents  turned  awry,  lose 
the  name  of  action.  With  a  humane 
breadth  of  knowledge  and  sympathy 
that  would  fit  out  a  dozen  poets  or 
philosophers,  he  allows  no  urbane  re 
finements  to  paralyse  his  power  of 
performance.  He  is  Spartan,  not 
Attic. 

To    dwell    for    a   moment    on    the 

President's  capacity  of  sympathy:  It  is 

quite  true  that  he  is  a  man 

Volume  of 

informa-  of  strong  opinions,  that  he  be 
lieves  in  himself  and  is  of  iron 
will.  That  he  is  sincere  in  his  interest  in 
other  men  of  whatever  station  in  life 
or  of  none  I  am  sure  no  one  could  ob 
serve  him  for  a  week  and  doubt.  He 
does  not  merely  send  his  humblest 
visitor  away  with  the  feeling  that  he 
has  met  a  friend  and  exchanged  ideas 
with  him,  but  in  a  surprising  number  of 


fl&r.  "Roosevelt  133 

cases  he  remembers  that  humble  visi 
tor,  recalling  a  day  or  two  later  some 
remark  that  passed  between  them. 
What  he  learned  from  the  visitor  I 
believe  the  President  never  forgets. 
I  hate  to  play  Dr.  Watson's  part  to 
the  President's  performances;  I  hate  to 
be  forever  using  the  words  "  marvel 
ous,  "  ' '  phenomenal, ' '  * '  extraordinary. ' ' 
Yet  it  is  a  literal  fact  that  in  several 
physical  respects  at  least  Mr.  Roosevelt 
is  a  marvel — in,  for  instance,  his 
abounding  energy  and  his  mobility  of 
interest.  It  is  once  more  necessary  to 
resort  to  a  strong  adjective  to  charac 
terise  the  amount  of  his  information. 
He  is  master  of  a  prodigious  number  of 
facts.  If  one  is  astonished  at  the 
end  of  half  an  hour  with  him,  he  is 
amazed  at  the  end  of  a  week.  This 
man  is  ignorant  of  nothing — by  which 


134  Hn  Estimate  of 

I  mean  that  there  is  nothing  about 
which  he  does  not  know  something;  in 
most  cases  it  is  a  good  deal.  Whether 
it  be  the  character  or  antecedents  of  a 
candidate  for  an  appointment,  or  the 
history  of  a  piece  of  legislation,  or  the 
present  status  of  a  bill,  or  the  date  of 
a  social  movement  or  phenomenon  in 
the  West  or  the  South  or  New  England 
or  in  mediaeval  Europe  or  in  modern 
New  Zealand,  the  name  and  date  and 
work  of  an  obscure  author,  or  the  plan 
of  one  of  Napoleon's  battles,  Mr.  Roose 
velt  has  information  on  it.  Sometimes 
he  is  wrong — my  observation  was,  not 
often.  To  dozens  of  visitors  with  whom 
I  have  heard  him  converse  he  recalls 
particulars  of  former  meetings  with 
them — some  little  incident,  the  names 
of  three  or  four  others  who  were  there, 
the  bully  time  they  had  had,  the  par- 


"Roosevelt  135 


ticular  stories  he  had  told  and  heard, 
the  time  his  train  left.  In  such  details 
he  was  never  mistaken.  Greeting  a 
man  for  the  first  time,  he  would  tell 
him  about  his  father  or  uncle,  or  give 
him  some  particulars  regarding  his 
own  town.  "What  was  your  mother's 
name?  Then  you  must  be  descended 
from  Jonathan  Edwards."  Surprised 
assent  is  given.  "  I  should  like  to  have 
Jonathan  Edwards  for  an  ancestor.  A 
long  way  back,  though.  He  was  a 
great  man,  but  he  had  no  sense  of 
humour."  There  is  really  constant 
work  for  a  Dr.  Watson  to  stand  by 
exclaiming  :  "Marvellous  !  Marvellous  !  " 
If  the  exigencies  of  political  fortune 
should  ever  reduce  Mr.  Roosevelt  to  the 
necessity  of  seeking  the  means  of  sub 
sistence  in  the  ranks  of  the  vulgar,  he 
would  do  well  as  a  practical  clairvoyant. 


136  Hn  Estimate  of 

Clairvoyant  in  a  deeper  sense  is  the 
President's  knowledge  of  the  contents 
Understand-  of  the  popular  mind  and 

Pop^to18        heart'        l  Can   Only  describe 

Heart.  it  so.  No  man  in  the  his 
tory  of  our  country,  save  Mr.  Lin 
coln,  has  lived  so  close  to  the  people, 
responded  so  instantly  and  so  ade 
quately  to  the  popular  sentiment, 
known  so  certainly  what  the  people 
would  stand  for.  I  reluct  from  any 
attempt  to  interpret  the  President  or 
account  for  him  on  any  other  grounds 
than  those  which  showed  themselves 
during  the  period  the  experiences  of 
which  this  book  describes.  Nor  is  it 
necessary  to  do  so.  It  is  sufficient  to 
watch  Mr.  Roosevelt  in  consultation 
with  the  official  and  unofficial  represen 
tatives  of  the  people  who  come  to  see 
him,  to  understand  that  he  is  indeed  the 


137 


type  and  ideal  of  the  average  American. 
He  is  not  representative  of  the  East. 
He  knows  that  the  centre  of  population 
has  been  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  in 
Indiana,  and  that  it  is  likely  to  remain 
there  for  a  century.  A  current  maga 
zine  article  describes  the  President  as 
an  ordinary  man  energised  to  the  nth 
power.  It  accounts  for  him  as  an  ex 
hibition  of  complete  normality.  It 
makes  other  remarks  about  him  which 
my  observations  refuse  to  confirm.  But 
this  they  do  confirm,  and  this,  I  feel 
free  to  say,  the  President's  own  esti 
mate  of  himself  confirms: 

He  has  a  peculiarly  accurate,  a  quite 
phenomenally  accurate,  understanding 
of  the  average  man.  Mr.  Roosevelt  has 
said  to  me  that  he  is  no  genius,  that 
he  does  not  recognise  in  himself  the 
faintest  scintillation  of  genius.  In  this 


138  Hn  Estimate  of 

he  is  over-modest.  It  is  genius  to  un 
derstand  the  average  man.  To  repre 
sent  absolutely  the  average  man,  to 
contain  within  one's  own  soul  all  that  is 
common  to  humanity,  its  common 
knowledge,  instincts,  hopes,  fears,  as 
pirations,  and  to  contain  nothing  more 
at  all,  would  be  to  be  great  beyond  all 
other  greatness.  After  all,  common 
humanity  is  very  wonderful  and  very 
noble.  To  be  truly  an  average  man 
would  be  to  be  a  part  of  the  mind  of 
millions,  to  be  possessor  of  the  greatest 
thoughts  that  live  in  the  world,  to  have 
a  vision  wider  and  farther-reaching 
than  that  of  an  isolated  seer  or  poet 
whatsoever.  It  is  the  inalienable  right 
of  every  free-born  citizen  to  be  an  aver 
age  man — and  most  of  our  fellow- 
countrymen  have  embraced  that  right 
and  hold  it  sacredly.  That  is  to  say, 


.  "Roosevelt  139 


in  their  good  qualities  they  do  not  rise 
above  the  average,  however  short  of 
the  average  they  may  be  in  others.  Mr. 
Roosevelt  is  up  to  the  average  in  every 
particular  —  he  has  the  genius  not  to 
advance  out  of  the  understanding  of  the 
average  man  in  any  particular.  He 
eschews,  by  instinct,  the  refinements  of 
the  idealistic  reformer,  the  speculative 
philosopher.  He  never  allows  the  world 
of  average  men  to  catch  him  thinking 
in  a  suspicious  manner.  He  knows  to  a 
nicety,  he  feels  by  means  of  a  delicate 
sixth  sense  which  the  majority  of  us 
do  not  possess,  precisely  what  the 
average  man  is  thinking  about  or  is 
ready  to  think  about,  wants  or  is  ready 
to  demand. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  curious  contra 
diction  between  the  President's  democ 
racy  of  manner  and  habit  and  his 


140  Hn  Estimate  of 

autocracy  of  performance.  He  is  an 
autocrat,  I  take  it,  not  in  his  own  right, 
m  tne  right  of  the  democ- 


A  Wh  11 

Human         racy.    He  is  clear  in  his  con 

viction  that  he  knows  what 
the  people  want,  that  he  in  his  person 
represents  the  popular  demand.  It  is 
clear  enough,  certainly,  that  he  does 
not  represent  the  ideas  of  the  particu 
lar  class  in  which  he  was  born,  nor 
of  the  education  which  was  given  him. 
It  is  in  the  confidence  that  he  has  be 
hind  him  the  will  of  the  people,  that 
he  asserts  himself  as  no  President 
before  ever  dared  to  assert  himself. 

This,  however,  is  but  one  of  the 
curious  contradictions  that  go  to  make 
up  the  personality  of  Theodore  Roose 
velt.  He  is  a  mass  of  contradictions: 
An  advocate  of  peace,  he  is  a  lover  of 
war.  He  hastens  to  enlist  for  the 


fl&r. 


Spanish  war,  he  forces  us  to  embark 
upon  a  great  naval  and  military  pro 
gramme,  and  he  makes  a  pet  of  the 
Army  —  but  he  of  all  the  world  stops 
the  war  in  the  East  and  he  refuses  to  let 
the  almost  intolerable  insults  of  a 
Castro  nag  him  into  a  fight.  He  is  a 
civil-service  reformer  —  and  a  practical 
politician.  And  so  on.  The  fact  is, 
human  nature  is  essentially  paradoxi 
cal.  Those  are  indeed  singular  and 
bewildering  contradictions,  which,  on 
every  hand,  in  every  normal  man,  and 
in  the  Nation's  ideal,  are  reconciled  in 
the  mysterious  alembic  of  life. 

Mr.  Roosevelt  is  all  the  nearer  the 
heart  of  the  people  just  because  he 
is  not  an  academic  theorist,  not  a 
bodiless  abstraction,  but  a  passionate, 
somewhat  wilful,  but  wholly  human, 
bundle  of  contradictions. 


THE   PRESIDENT   ON   MR. 
ROOSEVELT 

What  the  Executive  might  Say  of  Himself — "I 
Am  No  Genius" — Washington,  Lincoln,  the 
Average  Man,  and  Leadership — How  Seeming 
Impetuosity  may  Really  Be  Reasoned,  and 
Seeming  Rashness  Really  Patience — The  Fun 
of  Being  President. 

I  CAN  imagine  the  President  frankly 
discussing  an  estimate  of  himself  such 
as  the  one  recently  published  to  which 
reference  has  been  made.  The  Presi 
dent  would  be  likely  to  say: 

"  An  average  man  energised  to  the 
nth  power?  That 's  not  far  wrong.  I 
am  an  average  man.  I  am  no  genius. 
Nobody  knows  that  better  than  I 
know  it.  I  found  that  out  long  ago 
myself.  I  have  n't  a  hint  of  genius  in 

any  direction.    But  it  would  be  alto- 
142 


Ube  president  143 

gether  wrong,  it  would  be  quite  ab 
surd,  to  say  that  I  follow  public 
sentiment  and  don't  lead  it.  I  do 
lead  it;  in  any  event,  sometimes  I 
lead  it.  I  led  it  in  the  Panama 
action.  We  should  never  have  had 
Panama  without  me.  Nobody  else 
would  have  got  Panama.  Nobody 
else  would  have  dared  to  make  the 
move  I  made.  Nobody  in  the  wide 
world.  I  did  that,  and  public  senti 
ment  responded  instantly  and  said 
that  I  was  right.  I  am  leading  in  the 
creation  of  interest  in  the  regular 
Army  and  Navy.  It  is  one  of  my 
pets  to  have  the  regular  establish 
ment  well  thought  of,  to  bring 
it  before  the  public  attention  and 
make  the  country  proud  of  it.  No 
body  else  would  have  dared  do  that. 
Nobody  but  me  would  have  sent 


144  Ube  president 

the  fleet  around  the  globe.  I  led  in 
settling  the  anthracite  strike.  Who 
was  it  proposed  all  these  things? 
Who  worked  the  country  up  to 
them  ?  The  great  movement  to  which 
the  country  is  now  aroused  for  the 
preservation  of  our  National  re 
sources,  am  I  following  or  leading  in 
that?" 

"I    believe    I   have    an    unusual 

degree  of  sympathy  with  the  average 

American,  and  understand 

Wide  and 

Sincere  him  and  what  he  wants 
better  than  my  critics  do.  I 
meet  here  daily  all  sorts  and  condi 
tions.  I  am  not  afraid  of  any  of  them. 
I  know  every  man's  subject  pretty 
nearly  as  well  as  he  does  himself.  I 
sympathise  with  the  views  of  life,  to 
some  extent,  of  every  one  of  them.  I 
have  a  catholic  sympathy.  I  don't 


flDr.  TCoosevelt  145 


know  how  I  got  it;  I  suppose  I  must 
have  been  born  with  it,  although  that 
sort  of  thing  grows  with  the  exercise. 
Try  to  understand  men  and  enter 
into  their  lives,  and  you  will  soon  be 
able  to  do  it.  These  women  who 
come  here  —  it  may  seem  to  you  a 
small  thing,  but  they  go  away  com 
forted.  The  mothers  go  away  with 
a  sense  that  the  chief  authority  of 
their  country  understands  some 
thing  of  their  lives  and  of  their 
troubles,  just  as  the  men  who  come- 
most  of  them  have  a  home  and 
a  wife  and  children  —  go  away  feeling 
that  I  am  a  man  just  like  themselves; 
that  my  family  is  a  main  thing  with 
me  too,  and  that  I  think  about  my 
children,  and  plan  for  them  and 
worry  over  them  too.  I  don't  have 
to  act.  It  flows  out  of  me.  I  am 


146  Ube  president 

interested.  I  can't  tear  myself  away 
from  one  to  go  to  another.  They  tell 
me  how  they  feel  and  what  they  are 
interested  in,  and  I  tell  them  what 
I  am  doing  and  thinking  about. 
I  talk  to  them  square,  as  man  to  man, 
every  one  of  them.  I  haven't  any 
reservations;  could  n't  have.  I  don't 
bullyrag  them,  either.  I  put  my 
opinion  just  as  strongly  as  I  know 
how,  but  they  like  me  for  that.  They 
would  n't  stand  for  being  bullyragged 
any  more  than  I  would.  They  would 
detect  the  play-acting  or  insincerity 
mighty  quick.  Every  man  of  them  is 
full  of  interest  to  me.  There  was 
'Dry  Dollar'  Sullivan  a  while  ago. 
Tim  has  his  good  sides,  and  I  can 
meet  him  on  those  good  sides.  He  is 
a  big  man  physically;  stripped  for  a 
fight,  he  would  show  for  a  better  man 


*  1Roosex>elt  147 


than  I  am,  probably,  but  if  we  ever 
met  he  knows  that  it  would  be  a 
mischief  of  a  tussle,  and  that  I  would 
fight  until  I  was  blind.  He  has  seen 
me  by  the  ring-side,  and  he  knows 
that  I  appreciate  some  of  the  things 
he  is  interested  in.  I  believe  he 
does  n't  drink  or  even  smoke,  but  in  a 
way  he  likes  his  share  of  the  cakes 
and  ale  of  life.  Most  men  do.  So  do 
I.  Then  there  was  the  little  Metho 
dist  preacher.  In  the  essential  things 
that  he  is  interested  in  and  stands 
for,  in  everything  that  is  sincere  and 
upright  and  making  for  righteous 
ness,  I  am  with  him,  and  I  guess  he 
saw  that." 

'  '  I  know  the  common  instincts  of 
men.  But  I  do  lead.  I  don't  follow 
all  the  time,  for  a  fact.  Lincoln  had 
an  almost  miraculous  understanding 


148  Ube  president 

of  the  people.       Not  that  I  am  to  be 

mentioned  in  the  same  breath  with 

Lincoln.     Lincoln  was  an 

Lincoln  the 

Only  Ameri-  average  man,  but  Lincoln 

can  Genius.  .  .  , 

was  a  genius  besides — 
perhaps  the  only  genius  in  our 
political  history.  They  say  that 
Lincoln  followed,  that  he  even  did  n't 
lead  the  country  in  the  emancipation 
of  the  slaves,  in  the  unyielding  de 
mand  for  the  preservation  of  the 
Union.  That  is  absurd.  He  fur 
nished  the  arguments,  put  profound 
truths  simply,  prepared  the  senti 
ment,  and  then  he  led. 

"  Washington?  Why,  Washington 
did  n't  have  a  spark  of  genius.  He 
was  just  the  average  man  of  his  day, 
the  very  best  type  of  his  day  with 
indomitable  will,  unbounded  cour 
age,  and  no  end  of  faith,  and  no  end 


©n  flDr,  "Kooserelt          149 

of  patience.  No,  I  don't  think  he 
was  a  military  genius  at  all.  He 
fought  away,  and  did  n't  know  when 
he  was  whipped.  Oh!  He  was  a 
wonder,  he  was  a  hero  for  you!  But 
it  isn't  genius  that  does  big  things. 
Washington  was  courage,  determina 
tion,  and  patience  raised  to  the  nth 
power.  That 's  why  he  is  generally 
held  to  be  the  greatest  of  Americans. 
Frederick  the  Great  was  n't  a  mili 
tary  genius.  Not  at  all.  Frederick 
ran  away  in  his  first  battle.  And  his 
second  and  third  battles  were  most 
commonplace  exhibitions  of  soldier 
ship.  Then  he  began  to  win.  Now 
an  ordinary  general  would  n't  get  four 
chances.  He  would  n't  have  got  a 
second  chance  after  such  a  fiasco  as 
Frederick's  first  fight  was.  He  was  a 
king,  and  could  do  as  he  pleased, 


Ube  president 


and  he  kept  plugging  away  at  it  till 
he  learned  the  game/' 

"Have  I  got  Washington's  pa 
tience?  Certainly  1  11  excuse  you  — 
The  Latest  put  it  at  me.  I  hope  I 
President's  ha  ve;  I  think  I  have.  Not 

View  of  the 

First.  Washington's  perhaps,  but 

still  a  good  deal  of  patience.  Let 
me  see.  I  believe  Washington  had 
a  temper,  too.  Can  you  imagine 
any  one  on  this  job  who  did  n't 
have  patience  or  who  hadn't  ac 
quired  it?  Could  any  one  see  me 
here  an  hour  without  realising  that 
I  sometimes  have  to  hold  myself  in  ? 
I  know  as  well  as  any  one  that  pa 
tience  is  power.  I  do  possess  it  far 
more  than  I  am  given  credit  for. 
Here  comes  a  bunch  of  reformers 
wanting  me  to  break  with  the  ma 
chine  somewhere.  People  have  al- 


flDr.  1Roo8ex>elt  151 


ways  been  at  me  to  break  with  the 
machine  somewhere.  I  have  always 
fought  it.  I  have  never  yet  given 
into  it  on  a  matter  of  principle. 
But  I  have  kept  my  temper.  I  have 
simply  said,  '  I  am  sorry  you  can't  see 
it  my  way.'  Why,  from  away  back 
when  I  was  Police  Commissioner  in 
New  York  I  had  to  be  patient  and 
hold  my  tongue.  They  would  have 
broken  me  in  a  day.  Oh,  no,  indeed,  I 
have  n't  always  had  my  way.  Not  by 
a  good  deal.  I  understand  compro 
mise  —  when  no  principle  is  involved 
—  and  I  understand  waiting,  too. 

"  People  say  I  am  impetuous,  and 
hasty,  and  rash.  Maybe  I  am.  But 
they  are  usually  mistaken  in  the 
specifications.  I  was  called  rash 
when  I  ordered  the  fleet  around  the 
world.  Why,  I  had  been  planning 


is2  ^be  president 

that  thing  for  over  a  year,  and  for 
six  months  the  plans  had  been  per 
fected,  waiting  the  moment  to  put 
them  into  execution.  They  said  I 
was  impetuous  when  I  sent  my  long 
message  to  Congress.  Never  in  the 
world  was  there  anything  more  care 
fully  premeditated  and  timed.  You 
see,  there  was  danger  of  a  reaction 
setting  in.  Strong  efforts  were  being 
made  to  use  the  Wall  Street  troubles 
to  discourage  the  movement  for  re 
form.  I  prepared  that  message  de 
liberately,  and  timed  its  release  to  the 
hour.  There  was  nothing  impetuous 
about  it.  I  was  n't  goaded  to  it,  and 
I  did  n't  lose  my  head  for  a  moment. 
I  know  the  sentiment  of  this  country; 
I  know  what  the  people  want  and 
what  they  ought  to  want,  and  I 
know  the  moment  to  say  the  word. 


flDr.  1Roosex>elt          153 


"Oh,  I  get  a  lot  of  fun  out  of  it! 

I  can't  begin  to  tell  you.     I  would  be 

ashamed  to  let  anybody  know  how 

much  I  enjoy  the  Presidency.     I  like 

to  be  at  the  centre  of  big  things,  and 

I   like   to   give  things.     To   refuse, 

though,  is  hard;  I  don't  like  that. 

Still,  I  am  very  happy.     Plenty  of 

work  and  a  clear  conscience  ought 

to  make  any  man  happy." 

Mind  you,  I  don't  affirm  that   the 

President  said  this.     Only  it  is  just 

what   he  might   have  said   if  it   had 

occurred  to  him  to  discuss  himself  and 

his  work. 

For  it  is  characteristic  of  the  Presi 
dent  that  he  has  a  very  just  concep 
tion  of  the  character  of  Theodore 
Roosevelt. 


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